Sky Goes To School
by LisaT
Summary: Sky Smith starts school on Friday 22 April, 2011, the day time stops and history collapses. What could possibly go wrong? Crossover with Dr Who S6 ep 'The Wedding of River Song'.CHAPTER ELEVEN UP!
1. Chapter 1

_**Sky Goes To School**_

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><p>AN: OK, so I know I've neglected _When Cavaliers Attack_ for far too long, but I wrote myself into a corner and I'm still trying to get out of it! If anyone has any ideas, please feel free to share. Then Lis died, and any desire to write SJA kinda went out the window. With Series 5, however, my plot bunnies have returned, inspired mainly by Sky, who has been left relatively unfleshed by tragic circumstance. For fanfic purposes, this is ideal. And I wanted to see school through Sky's pov, in much the same way we saw Luke's in Revenge of the Slitheen. Plus, school stories were my first love as both reader and writer, so this story will pay homage to the genre. Please, please do review. They keep me going and keep me focused - I tend to flit, and if stories aren't getting feedback inspiration drops off - as most of you know, being writers yourselves! It's still a minor mystery to me how I actually managed to complete a published book, given the general lack of review-fix. Concrit also very welcome - typos, lapses in characterisation, plot holes etc - feel free to point 'em out. Most of all, enjoy!

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><p><em><strong>Chapter One: Adults and Other Alien Species<strong>_

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><p>Sky Smith tilted the mirror in her – Luke's – her bedroom until it was at a suitable angle, and surveyed her reflection gravely.<p>

She saw a small girl of twelve, neatly attired in school uniform. The tie was regulation length and tucked neatly into her knee length skirt, and her hair was in two short braids. She looked, in fact, to be the very model of a schoolgirl, and left her room suffused with satisfied confidence. She was ready to begin for her first initiation into the Real World in the shape of going to school (as opposed to the weird and wonderful world of Sarah Jane Smith, with which Sky was already entirely at home).

She was, therefore, rather discomfited by the manner of her greeting when she entered the kitchen for her breakfast. Rani's eyes widened and Clyde's expression turned poker faced, the way it did when he was trying very hard not to laugh.

'What?' she asked anxiously as she sat at the table and slurped the tea that was awaiting her. 'Is it wrong?'

'You look very tidy, Sky,' Sarah Jane told her as she placed a plate of burnt toast in front of the girl. 'I'm sure Haresh will approve.'

Clyde snorted. '_He'll_ approve, all right.' He eyed Sky warily. 'It's what everyone _else_ will do that's the problem.'

Rani shoved him out of the way and sat down next to Sky, in the place Sarah Jane usually used. 'Sky, what's – uh – this about?' she asked cautiously picking up one of the brown plaits and replacing it with equal care. As if it might start fizzing electricity.

Sky beamed at her. 'It was a picture on one of Sarah Jane's books,' she said. 'The girl looked about twelve, and she was dressed like this for school. I thought it was OK,' she went on, a little less excitedly. 'But it isn't, is it?' Her shoulders drooped.

Rani frowned, grimaced, scratched her forehead, and cast Sarah Jane an apologetic look. 'Um, how old was the book, Sky?' she asked delicately.

Clyde stole a crust from Sky's place and snorted again. 'Probably fifty years old.' He grinned at Sarah Jane, mischief plain in his face. 'Did you like school stories, Sarah Jane?'

The older woman returned his grin with half-hearted glare. 'I had very little time for them, but my aunt considered it proper reading for a young girl. And then,' she went on, turning to look out of the kitchen window, 'she turned it into reality by packing me off to boarding school when I was ten.'

Clyde was still smirking. 'Did she make you have little pigtails?'

Sarah Jane tried to maintain her glare, but it turned into an unwilling laugh. 'As it happens, she did, and I wore them until I got on the train with the other girls. Then we all took our braids out and let our hair blow any which way, much to the horror of the prefects. But then,' she went on with a slight sigh, 'it _was_ the Sixties.'

'What's that?' Sky asked, wide-eyed.

'A very long time ago, Sparky,' Clyde told her, dodging Sarah Jane's punch. 'And even they ditched the plaits. Take 'em out, Sparks. You'll never hear the end of it if you don't. And do something with your tie,' he finished, pointing at the long tie that disappeared under Sky's jumper.

'You need to make it shorter,' Rani advised when Sky frowned. 'Look, I'll show you.' She untied her own tie and did it again. 'See?'

Obediently, Sky copied her actions, her earlier excitement turning into a sense of profound disquiet. Whoever knew that going to school could be so complicated?

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><p>Sky's confusion only deepened when they got to school. When she tried to follow Rani and Clyde into the building, Sarah Jane halted her with a hand on her shoulder.<p>

'You can't go with them, Sky.'

Sky raised sorrowful dark eyes to her adopted mother's face. 'Why? They're my friends. You said I would like school because I'd be with my friends, and that's Rani and Clyde.'

Sarah Jane put an arm around her, pulling Sky close. 'I know. They'll still be your friends, I promise, but you can't hang around with them at school. They're sixth formers – nearly grown up – and you'll be a first year, at the very bottom of the pile.'

Sky leaned into the half-embrace, suddenly feeling very scared. She had been looking forward to school, but now it all seemed… alien, and she felt utterly lost. 'Do I have to go?' she asked in a very small voice.

Sarah Jane cupped Sky's face with her hands. 'I won't lie to you and tell you it's going to be easy,' she told the child. 'School is hard. It's a fact of life. It's hard for everyone, for one reason or another. Luke felt as you do, and I bet Rani and Clyde will tell you they felt the same. Well, perhaps not Clyde,' she added with a smile.

'Clyde's never scared of anything,' Sky told her earnestly.

Sarah Jane laughed. 'He's turned you into a little padowan, all right. Oh, believe me, Clyde gets scared like everyone else. He just doesn't like showing it. Just remember, you're a Smith, and you're part of our team. What's rule number one?'

'We never tell anyone what we do,' Sky parroted, having heard this numerous times over the past week. 'And the other rule number one is that we stick together.' A line deepened between her brows. 'If they're both rule number one, which one comes first?'

Sarah Jane laughed again and hugged her. 'They're all rule number one because they're all equally important, but that's not what I was talking about.'

Sky pulled back and goggled up at her. 'You mean there's _another_ one?'

'Get used to rules, kid. They're a part of life. No, the other important rule is that we never, ever panic and we never, ever give up.'

'That's two rules,' Sky objected.

'Not really. People panic, and that makes them give up, because they think they can't do whatever it is they're afraid of. We feel the fear and do it anyway. Just remember, Sky, you're like Luke: you saved the world on the day you were born, near enough. No matter what the other children say, they can't beat that, can they?'

'I suppose not,' Sky agreed, starting to feel a little better. She glanced nervously about her; the phalanx of big and little people that had surrounded them on their arrival had dissipated. 'Where's everyone gone?'

Sarah Jane turned to check that the car was locked before putting an arm about Sky's shoulders once again. 'It's nearly time for registration,' she explained as she steered the young girl in the direction of the double glass doors that was the school's main entrance. 'You need to go to see Haresh first.'

'Why? He just lives across the road.'

'Yes, but there he's just our neighbour. Here, he's the Headmaster and very important. It's polite.'

Sky sighed. 'I'll never understand humans,' she said despondently.

'You and me both,' she heard Sarah Jane mutter as they entered the building, and Sky pressed even closer to her foster mother. It was sterile and pristine and gleaming, their steps echoing sharply, and awoke some fear deep within her.

'Let's go and see Haresh,' Sarah Jane said brightly, as if she knew how Sky was feeling, and Sky held on the older woman's hand very tightly, more truly scared than she ever had been before.

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><p>Seeing Haresh was not at all what Sky had expected. Despite her fear, she had greeted him with her usual beam, anticipating the smile that customarily softened his sculpted features at sight of her. This time, he simply nodded at her and rose from behind a big desk to shake Sarah Jane's hand, just as if they hadn't spoken to each other only last night.<p>

'Welcome to Park Vale, Sky,' Haresh told her as Sky sat down next to Sarah Jane.

Haresh himself had returned to his seat, and he looked very formal and formidable there. Sky shrank into her chair, wishing she could disappear.

'Luke did very well here,' Haresh was saying, 'and I'm sure you will too, isn't that right, Sarah Jane?'

'Absolutely,' Sarah Jane agreed, one hand going to squeeze Sky's. 'Now, let's get down to business, shall we?'

Sky zoned in and out over the next ten minutes, studying the items in the study and outdoor scene beyond, the one she could see in the window behind Haresh. Her adopted mother and neighbour where talking about things that didn't make sense, like cohorts and attainment targets and key stages. Sky wondered what a key stage was; was it a special kind of platform that let you into something else?

Mr Smith had promised her that she was ready to go into first year at Park Vale, and for the first time Sky found herself doubting her Xylok friend. What if Mr Smith was wrong? Why didn't she understand all the things Sarah Jane was talking about? After all, what could Mr Smith know? He was an alien too, just like Sky was…

She jerked back to attention when Haresh said, 'So, Sky, we're going to try you in 7BJ this term. We'll move you if we need to, but it's a good place to be while you find your feet. Miss Jones started the same year Luke did, and she's got a lot of experience with G&T kids.'

Sky looked puzzled. 'Isn't G&T a drink?'

A quick smile crossed Haresh's face and disappeared almost at once, as if he was afraid of showing how he felt. 'It is, but in school it means 'gifted and talented'. You're clearly a very bright girl, and – well, if Miss Jones could deal with Luke, I'm sure she'll have no trouble with you!'

_Great_, thought Sky as she slumped back in her chair again. _Luke again. Always Luke…_

'Do you want to take her to Room Twenty, Sarah Jane?' Haresh said, standing up. 'We wouldn't want to get lost on our first day, would we, Sky?'

He smiled again, and this time it was his proper smile, the one he used when she asked for a second helping of his macaroni cheese, and Sky relaxed and beamed at him, jumping to her own feet.

'Thanks Haresh!' she bubbled. 'Getting lost would be _awful_!'

Haresh's face froze, the smile becoming fixed. 'Good. I'll see you later. Sarah Jane,' he said, giving Sky's adopted mum a look that Sky knew _meant_ something.

'Come along, Sky,' Sarah Jane said briskly, nodding at Haresh. 'Let's get you settled in.'

When the office door closed behind them and they were once again in the horrid corridor, Sky turned to Sarah Jane. 'What did I do wrong?'

'Oh, Sky. Come here. Come and sit for a minute.' Sarah Jane sat down on one of the straight chairs that stood in the corridor and patted an empty seat beside her.

'Won't I be late?' Sky asked anxiously. 'I don't want to get anything else wrong.'

'You're new, you're allowed to be late,' Sarah Jane told her firmly, patting the seat again.

Sky sat down, right at very edge. She wasn't convinced that Sarah Jane was right. Sarah Jane knew all about aliens and saving the world, but Sky found herself wondering whether Sarah Jane _really_ understood about school.

'Do you remember what I said about Haresh being the Headmaster?' Sarah Jane began. 'He's the most important person in the school.'

Sky nodded.

'That means, Sky, that in future you have to call him "Mr Chandra",' Sarah Jane said softly. 'It shows respect.'

'Does that mean that Rani and Clyde and Har- Mr Chandra, I mean – don't respect you?' Sky asked, scuffing a toe of her brand new leather shoes against the floor. '_They_ don't call you "Miss Smith".'

'I don't care about that, so long as I can do my job,' Sarah Jane told her firmly. 'But Har- Mr Chandra – does care, and it doesn't look good if the other children hear you using his first name. Even Rani has to call him "Mr Chandra" in school,' she added.

Sky's eyes widened. 'But he's her _dad_!' she protested.

'I know, it seems rather silly, doesn't it? It's just one of those rules about being polite to important people, or people who are older than you are. It's also why you won't see much of Rani and Clyde in school. Humans like to divide themselves up, you see.'

Sky groaned and bent forward so that her single ponytail (Rani had taken the plaits out before they left Bannerman Road) swung forward over her shoulder. 'Can't I just stay out of school and help you fight aliens?' she asked hopefully.

Sarah Jane laughed and stood up, pulling Sky with her. 'Even if you didn't go to school, you'd still need to learn,' she told Sky, directing her down one of those long corridors. 'It's the law. Besides, the more you know, the more you can help, yes?'

'Promise?' Sky asked, looking up at Sarah Jane.

'Promise,' Sarah Jane told her as they came to a stop in front of a red door with a shiny glass window in the middle. The window was lined with funny lines, turning it into a grid. Sky stared at it, fascinated.

'Ready to start school?' Sarah Jane asked.

Sky tore her gaze from the window and fixed it on Sarah Jane. She swallowed, her momentary distraction gone. 'Yes,' she said quietly.

'You'll be fine,' Sarah Jane said, 'and there's Rani and Clyde and Har – Mr Chandra – here if you need anything, and I'm just a phone call away.' Her smile was reassurance and safety and _home_, all at once.

Sky surprised herself by throwing herself into Sarah Jane's arms. 'I'll be fine,' she whispered into her adopted mum's leather jacket, and then she stepped back, squared her small shoulders, and prepared to begin life at school.

**TBC?**

**Worth continuing? If so, review!**


	2. Chapter 2

_Many thanks to_ **Vilinye**_ for the review and encouragement!_

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><p><strong>Chapter Two: Registering Human<strong>

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><p>After Sarah Jane departed, Sky stood on tippy-toes and peered through the mysterious little window into the classroom beyond. It was bright and filled with people, and Sky swallowed.<p>

She'd never had to face so many people, so many _humans_, all at once before… She took a deep breath and opened the door, just enough to allow her to slip through. Most people glanced at her, and she quailed, unsure of what to do next.

The blonde woman who was talking about something (it might as well have been Judoon for all the sense Sky could make of it) finally turned and looked at her.

'You're late,' she said shortly. 'There's a seat waiting for you next to Al.'

Sky's brow wrinkled. 'But how do you know who I am?' she asked uncertainly.

'Don't be cheeky,' the blonde woman snapped. 'Take your seat and we'll get on.

'But-' Sky protested, but she was interrupted by a hand waving from the third row.

'Your seat's here,' an unseen voice announced in lugubrious tones.

'But-' Sky tried again, thoroughly confused. 'Aren't I supposed to register?'

The blonde woman sighed. 'Oh, for – You're Sky Smith, aren't you?'

'Yes,' Sky said, reduced to unaccustomed meekness by the woman's brusque manner.

'Yes, _Miss Jones_,' that lady snapped. 'Girl wonder or not, I won't tolerate rudeness.'

'I wasn't,' Sky started, her eyes starting to fill from bewilderment.

'Just sit down,' Miss Jones told her wearily. 'Of all the insane things,' she continued in an undertone that Sky could hear as she passed. 'Who makes a child start school on a _Friday_?'

Sky stiffened at the implicit criticism of Sarah Jane, but the owner of the hand was standing up, pointing at the seat next to him, and she took the hint and subsided into the uncomfortable chair.

'It makes perfect sense,' she muttered, darting an unfriendly glance towards Miss Jones at the top of the classroom. 'She just doesn't _understand_.'

'Grown-ups don't,' her neighbour agreed glumly.

Sky looked at him with sudden interest. He was the first person who'd tried to be nice.

'You're awfully short,' she said in some surprise. 'You're even shorter than me. And you're _ginger_,' she continued, reaching out a hand to try to touch the short carroty spikes that covered his head. 'I've never seen anyone ginger before.'

'And you're _weird_,' Ginger Boy retorted, shying away from her touch. He reached up to smooth the spikes, his magnified eyes glaring at her from behind his round spectacles, making him look like an indignant insect.

'I know,' Sky agreed easily. 'Are you Al?'

'Yeah,' he said gruffly. 'Al … Potter,' he admitted, giving her a wary sideways look.

Sky held out her hand. 'I'm Sky Smith,' she said, using the tone she'd heard Sarah Jane use in similar situations. 'Pleased to meet you.'

Al shook her fingers carefully, as if he thought they might turn into something sharp and pointy. 'You're _definitely_ weird.'

And the pair grinned at each other, a new alliance formed.

'_Will_ you two be quiet?' Miss Jones bellowed from the top of the room, causing them to jump violently. 'Otherwise, Sky Smith, you'll have detention on your _very first day!_'

Sky blinked at her. 'I don't mind,' she said. 'Clyde says detention is cool, but not to tell Sarah Jane.'

'_Shhhh!_' Al hissed, jogging her with his elbow. 'Can't you see she's pissed off? Prob'ly got PMT,' he continued with the weary patience of a boy all too accustomed to feminine vagaries. 'If you don't shut up she'll put us all in detention – and we'll lose most of our lunch.'

This was all the hint Sky needed. For the rest of the morning until the bell rang for break, she said exactly nothing, a worried line deepening between her brows.

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><p>At break time, she was abducted by Rani when that young woman passed her on her way to the coke machine.<p>

'How's it going?' the Sixth former asked, dropping her coins in once they reached it. 'Made any friends yet?'

Sky opened her eyes widely. 'How can I make friends when I'm not allowed to talk?' she asked. 'There's only one person who's been nice so far,' she continued sadly, 'and that's a boy called Al. Imagine,' she went on confidentially, leaning against the coke machine to watch the machinery with some fascination, 'he's ginger, really _properly_ ginger!'

Rani looked amused. 'Why does that matter?'

'The Doctor wanted to be ginger,' Sky said vaguely as she watched the coke smash its way into the bottom of the machine, ready for collection. 'Sarah Jane said so. I didn't know what she meant until today.'

'What about Miss Jones?' Rani asked, breaking open her can. 'Dad said he would be putting you with her.'

Sky wilted. 'She doesn't like me. She's horrible.'

'She didn't like Luke much either,' Clyde said, his head appearing behind Rani's left shoulder. 'Doesn't like anyone much, does Jonesy.'

'Why did your dad want me to go with her, then?' Sky asked.

Rani shrugged, absently handing her can to Clyde. 'Because she's a good teacher, and she won't treat you differently, no matter how brilliant you are.'

'But I'm _not_,' Sky burst out, her eyes filling again. 'Everyone keeps saying I'm like Luke, but he was a genius and … I'm not, I'm just … _sparky_, that's all!'

She turned away from the coke machine and her friends, determined to get away. School was proving to be more terrible than her worst fears, and all she wanted was to go home… but she could not even go there, she thought despairingly as she ran. Sarah Jane expected her to be brilliant, like Luke, and she wasn't, she was just … Sky.

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><p>'Oh, <em>bugger!<em>' Clyde breathed with unparliamentary fervency as the small girl disappeared into the heaving crowd of teenagers. 'The bell's about to go any second. Now what are we s'posed to do?'

'That's not the only thing,' Rani told him, one long finger pointing upwards. 'Look at the lights. They're flickering.'

Clyde groaned and leaned heavily against the nearest wall. 'Worse and worse. Thought Sarah Jane said she was just an ordinary kid now?'

'We've never seen her really, _really_ upset before,' Rani said thoughtfully, chewing a fingernail. 'After all, she was created as a weapon. That can't be completely wiped out. The question is, how far does the disruption go?'

Clyde's expression morphed from worry to dawning glee as the bell started to jingle. 'Yeah, and you know what we've got next?' he asked, jabbing Rani's upper arm with a light punch. 'ECDL, that's what. An' if all the computers are down… no beer.' He chortled and adjusted his bag on his shoulders. 'Suits me fine, I'm behind in my art coursework –'

'_Clyde!_' Rani hissed. 'Stop and think. This is _Sky_ we're talking about. I know Sarah Jane said we had to let her sort out her own problems, but … shouldn't we try to find her? Just in case? Imagine what Sky could do if she got really, _really_ upset…'

The lights flickered a final time and died, and Clyde glanced up. 'Yeah,' he said, his glee evaporating. 'You're right. We'd better find her before more unexplained things start happening.' He adjusted his bag again. 'Should we phone Sarah Jane?'

Rani stood and thought. 'No,' she decided after a pause. 'We can sort this out ourselves, can't we? After all, it's just Sky, an upset kid, not an alien invasion or the end of the world!'

She headed off in the direction that Sky had gone, ignoring Clyde's muttered 'famous last words' and her own inner conviction that where the Smith family was concerned, nothing was ever simple.

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><p>'Where's the new girl?' Mrs Pittman asked when 7BJ came to her for their history lesson after break. 'I thought the Head said she was starting today?'<p>

'She did,' Al told her. 'But she's disappeared.'

'Don't be ridiculous,' Mrs Pittman scolded. 'People don't just _disappear_,' she scoffed. 'Al, run along to the office and find out if they know where she is.'

Al gave a longsuffering sigh and obeyed, his glum expression deepening as he winded his way through the school's corridors in his journey to reception. He had little hope of the office staff treated him seriously, message from Mrs Pittman or no; chances were that he'd be told that they were sure Sky'd be fine and then they'd tell him to run along. If he was really unlucky, they'd even pat him on the head. That was the worst of being short and ginger, he thought resentfully. No-one _ever _took him seriously, especially not wom-

'Oooof,' he grunted as he walked into something tall. He squinted up and shrank back as he recognised the tall dark girl who he'd been told was the Headmaster's daughter.

'I'm sorry,' he squeaked. Today was going downhill, _fast_.

'It's fine, kiddo,' Rani told him absently, her eyes scanning the air above his head. 'Where're you off to anyway?'

'Mrs Pittman sent me,' Al told her hurriedly. They didn't have prefects at Park Vale, but Rani _was_ a Sixth former and she _was_ the Head's daughter. Who knew what she'd do him if she thought he was indulging in a little illicit wandering?

'Why?' Rani asked, sounding truly interested, and Al relaxed. P'rhaps nothing awful was gonna happen after all.

'That new girl in my form, Sky Smith, she's vanished,' he said. 'I know it sounds dumb,' he added quickly before Rani could behave like all the other grown ups, 'but she's gone. I can't find her anywhere, and I _looked_ – even in the Girls',' he ended in a sheepish whisper.

Rani peered at him in a way that made him oddly uncomfortable, as if wheels were turning in her mind. 'Are you Al?'

'So what 'fiam?' he responded, a touch aggressively.

Much to his surprise, Rani beamed at him and clapped him on the shoulder. 'Pleased to meet you, Al. Sky told me about you. She said you're friends.'

'Sort of,' Al agreed warily, ignoring the warmth that welled within him at her words. No-one in Park Vale, as far as he knew, had ever called him _friend_. And Sky seemed like a good kid, even if she was weird.

'Good. Come to help?'

Al's eyes popped from behind his glasses. 'With what?'

Rani grinned when multiple car alarms began to sound. 'To find Sky, of course, before the school blows up!'

Al sqeaked and nodded, wondering whether somehow he'd fallen asleep and this was all a dream.

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><p>Meanwhile, the cause of all the commotion was sitting in the middle of a vast rhododendron bush across the road from the school. She was huddled in a tight ball, wincing from the piercing shriek of the car alarms in the school car park that she'd inadvertently set off.<p>

She stretched her small hands in front of her, and sighed at the sight of the blue sparks fizzing from her fingers.

_I need to calm down_, she thought as her breathing hitched, verging on hyperventilation. A spark flew from her fingers and she yelped when it momentarily ignited the debris at her feet.

_I'm _not_ an ordinary human girl_, she thought sadly, _and I'm not a superbrain like Luke is, either. Sarah Jane said there's people out there who want me for the wrong reasons, but how do I know she really wants me either? I'm just an ordinary kid … who could explode her house at any minute. Who'd really want me around?_

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><p><em>TBC.<em>

_Feedback, please? _


	3. Chapter 3

Thanks to **IsobelFrances** for her review! Enjoy!

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><p><strong>CHAPTER THREE<strong>

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><p>Rani looked ashamed of herself when her melodramatic pronouncement about the school blowing up caused Al's face to drain of colour.<p>

'Good one, Rani,' Clyde told her sarcastically as joined them, giving the First Year a slap that was supposed to be reassuring. 'Now he'll run for the hills.'

Al drew himself up to his full meagre height. 'I won't!' he declared. 'I _like_ Sky, even though she's awful weird.'

Clyde gave him a sceptical look. 'Yeah, and let me guess. Your name is… Albus, right?' The younger boy went from white to red so quickly that Clyde felt guilty. He wasn't trying to humiliate the kid. 'Just sayin',' he added quickly. 'Everyone's weird, somehow.'

'Enough!' Rani told them firmly. 'We need to find Sky. Al, do you have any idea of where she would go?'

'Not me,' Al said regretfully. 'I only met her this morning. I know she's not in any of the usual places, including the toilet.'

'If she was Luke, she'd head for the library,' Clyde muttered. 'What about the generator?' he went on. ''Cos she's _Sparky_, yeah?'

Rani beamed. 'That's a stroke of genius, Clyde, and it's the best idea I've heard yet! Come on!' She turned and started to run down the darkened corridor as the bell sounded for the end of the lesson, leaving the boys with no choice but to follow.

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><p>'Why would Sky go to the generator?' Al panted as he tried to keep up with Clyde. Even though the other boy wasn't tall, it was quite a job, especially when the other kids were milling around them.<p>

Clyde glanced back at him over his shoulder. 'Too difficult to explain now, kid,' he called. 'When we've found Sky, and everything's back to normal, then we'll – oh, _great_!' he finished abruptly.

Al cannoned into him hard from behind, startled by the sudden stop, and only just prevented himself from going headlong. Once he was steady, he looked to see what had caused the halt, and gulped.

Mr Chandra was looming tall in front of them, his arms folded, and quite literally looking down his nose at them. 'And where do you think _you're_ going, Mr Langer?' he enquired silkily.

'We're trying to find Sky, sir,' Clyde told him urgently. 'She's disappeared.'

The Headmaster raised a satirical eyebrow. 'Into thin air? Hardly. No, she'll be around somewhere. Back to class, Mr Langer –'

'But the lecky's gone!' Clyde protested.

'Yes, and the generator should kick in at any moment,' Mr Chandra said. 'In any case, it's no concern of yours. You'll be told when and if you need to worry.'

'But _sir,_' Clyde tried again.

'_March_, Langer!' Mr Chandra barked. 'On the double, or you can forget any references for art college!'

Al saw Clyde cast the Head a dark look as he obeyed, but he had no time to ask what would happen about Sky, because Mr Chandra's dark gaze had turned on him.

'And you, Mr Potter. Being led astray, are we? We can't have that. Back to class with you too!'

'Yes, sir,' Al agreed meekly, and began to trail disconsolately down the corridor towards the history room to collect his gear. _If only – _

His thought was cut of by the wailing screeching sound of the fire alarm.

_At least now Sky'll_ have _to show_, he thought with relief as he turned around to head out to the playground. _Won't she?_

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><p>'Did you find Sky?' Clyde muttered into Rani's ear as they waited for roll-call to end and the all-clear to return to the building. 'Was she in the genny?'<p>

'No such luck,' Rani whispered back to him, frowning as she squinted in the direction of the lines of juniors at the opposite end of the playground. 'Surely she'd have come to earth when the alarm went?'

Her friend gave her a look. 'Rani, does Sky even know what the sound means, or what she's supposed to do when she hears it?'

She stared at him. 'Crikey, you're right. She wouldn't, would she?' She pulled out her phone and started scrolling for the younger girl's number.

'Where'd you get that, 1999?' Clyde jeered, indicating her mobile. 'It looks ancient. Thought you were gonna get a smartphone after we lost the last lot.'

'What's the point in that?' Rani hissed in return. 'It'd only get smashed up. Ah, here we go… _Bugger_.'

'No joy?'

'She's not answering, anyway.' She looked at Clyde. 'If she's upset… could it be draining her phone?'

At that point, someone started bellowing for attention through a microphone, and the Sixth formers had to quieten and listen.

'SKY SMITH!' the speaker boomed, the little girl's name echoing around the grounds. 'Has anyone seen SKY SMITH?'

Rani and Clyde waited with bated breath, half expecting to see the familiar form of their young friend materialise in front of them.

A minute passed, sixty long seconds ticked off by the beat of their hearts.

Still there was no sign of Sky. The fire brigade came shrieking up, lights blaring and sirens wailing.

Sky remained absent.

Clyde sighed and nodded at Rani. 'Do it,' he mouthed. 'Call Sarah Jane.'

* * *

><p>'Missing? What d'you mean, <em>missing<em>?' Sarah Jane demanded as she narrowly avoided crashing her car. 'All right. All right, Rani, calm down. I'm not blaming you … Listen, I'm driving, but I'll be with you as soon as I can, OK? Don't panic.'

She pushed the END CALL button on her phone and took a deep breath, trying to take her own advice and still her thumping pulse. Sky was still a relatively new part of her life, but she'd wound tendrils deep into Sarah Jane's heart. She adored Luke, but – as she'd told her young friend Maria Jackson some years before – she'd always secretly longed for a daughter, and now she had one along with her precious, brilliant son. A proper family at last.

_A proper family that always seems to be teetering on the brink of disaster_, she thought ruefully as she waited for the traffic lights to change to green. If it wasn't one thing, it was another, and having two brilliant kids caused almost as many problems as they solved.

_Just as well their mum's brilliant too_, she thought grimly as she turned the car into the road that ended in Park Vale Comprehensive's car park. Otherwise she'd have been a candidate for Lavender Lawns long before now…

_Oh, snap out of it, Smith! _she ordered herself as she slammed the brake and pulled the car to an abrupt, protesting stop near the school's main entrance. She sat and looked at the glass doors, remembering Luke's first day five years previously when the kids – _her_ kids – had come barrelling out, Slitheen trailing in their wake.

_At least I'm sure it's not aliens this time_, Sarah Jane thought when she got out of her little green Nissan, locking it automatically. _Hopefully, it's just a frightened child…_

Guilt assailed her as she jogged around the buildings to get to the playground at the back, where Rani had said she and Clyde would be waiting. _Sky didn't want to come, and I didn't take her concerns seriously…_

She was panting slightly when she finally found her young friends. Teachers were shouting orders, and kids were milling around, ensuring that her arrival was obsured by the general bedlam.

'I'm here,' she puffed as she came up to Clyde, thinking regretfully that she really had to start those old UNIT exercises again. That episode with Ruby White haunted her; she wasn't getting any younger, and the worry that she would some day, some day _soon_, put her beloved friends (she hesitated to use 'companions') in danger through being too slow nagged at her.

'Any sign of Sky?'

'Sarah Jane,' Clyde greeted, his head shaking no in answer to her question. 'Want a drink?' he offered, passing her a red can of something noxious.

'Thanks,' she panted as she took a swig. '_Urrgh_, that's revolting, Clyde,' she complained as she returned the can to him. 'Sugar and caffeine, no wonder you're always bouncing off the walls.'

'Hey, that stuff fuels my creative genius!' Clyde retorted, pretending to sound indignant, but he sobered almost at once. 'Any ideas on how we'll find Sparky?'

_And that's Clyde all over_, Sarah Jane thought affectionately. _Complainer and joker he might be, but he's always there when it comes to the crunch…_ 'I'll try calling her,' she decided aloud.

'We tried that,' Rani mentioned. 'No answer.'

'Did it ring?' Sarah Jane asked, glancing up from her own phone as she started to dial Sky's number. 'Or was it dead?'

Rani hesitated. 'Dead, I _think_.'

'Whaddya mean, _think_?' Clyde pressed. 'You told me you thought the battery was flat.'

'I did, but now I think about it, it didn't sound quite right. There was a funny buzz, and there was no automated message.'

'Well, we'll soon find out,' Sarah Jane told her as she hit CALL and raised the mobile to her ear. 'Hmmm…. No answer. I see what you mean, Rani,' she ended uneasily, snapping her old clamshell shut to end the call. 'No auto message, and there _is_ a buzz –'

'That's 'cos the pair of you have got last-century phones,' Clyde said jauntily, extracting his own cutting-edge smartphone from his pocket. 'Betcha I can get through to her, just wait –' He touched his phone to unlock it and promptly dropped it, causing it to clatter on the rough gravel at their feet.

'Oh, well done Clyde,' Rani said, giving him an ironic pat on the back. 'Hope you've got insurance.'

'Not much use in that,' Sarah Jane told her as Clyde bent down to gingerly retrieve his phone. 'I don't think any phone insurance company would accept "alien activity" as a reason for needing a replacement.'

Rani grinned, but Clyde did not laugh as Sarah Jane had expected him to. Instead, he handed her his phone, now looking rather the worst for wear, but the message on the screen was bright and clear.

THE END IS NIGH scrolled repeatedly across the black screen, flickering in neon green.

'That's odd,' Sarah Jane muttered. She hit a button, but nothing happened. 'Try turning it off and turning it on again,' she instructed as she handed the phone back to its owner. 'It must've got upset by the fall.'

Clyde's fingers were already working. 'It didn't,' he said. 'That's why I dropped it, and somehow I don't think restarting is gonna help much.'

'Well, give it a go,' Sarah Jane counselled. 'Rani, you haven't had this, have you?'

'Nope,' Rani told her, pouting to give her 'p' emphasis. 'But then, I decided to do what you do and deliberately got an old, cheap phone when my last one got trashed. Not got money to burn, unlike some people,' she finished, casting Clyde a meaning look.

Sarah Jane blinked. 'That's it,' she breathed. 'Clyde's phone isn't working because it's a new one, with 3G and wifi and whathaveyou. That's what Sky has, so I bet that's why we can't get hold of her –'

Rani already had her phone to her ear. 'You're right,' she said. 'I'm getting exactly the same funny noise when I try to ring Clyde.'

Clyde glanced down at his rebooted phone. 'And there's no sign here you even tried to call.'

Sarah Jane's lips thinned. 'I'll try Mr Smith,' she decided. 'He can trace Sky through her phone's signal, no matter what the thing itself is doing…' She pushed the button that would connect her to her supercomputer and they waited.

Mr Smith's response was so loud that Sarah Jane flinched back and only just avoided sending her own phone crashing to the ground.

THE END IS NIGH stated Sarah Jane's phone in the calm, authoritative tones of her Xylok supercomputer. THE END IS NIGH. THE END IS NIGH.

Sarah Jane shut it off by closing her phone with a particularly vicious snap.

Clyde and Rani were watching her, wide-eyed, but it was the former who spoke first.

'The end of the universe, _again_. Time for Team Sarah Jane to swing into action!' Grinning, he put an arm around Rani, and his other about Sarah Jane's shoulders, but the older woman could not share his flippancy.

'We can't always win,' she murmured, mostly to herself. 'What if this is the time we lose?'

* * *

><p>Some thirty feet away, deep in the bushes, Sky was curled into a tight ball. Her eyes were clenched shut, and her hands squeezed against her head with all the strength they could muster, as if the pressure could alleviate the drilling, throbbing pain that was taking her breath away and robbing her of the ability to think. Nausea churned her stomach, frightening her even more than the pain did. She had felt pain like that once before, when she'd attacked the Metalkind, but the other symptoms were new, and at least then Sarah Jane and Rani and Clyde were there. Now she was all alone, and with every second the pain intensified.<p>

_I'm going to die_, she thought desperately as darkness fringed the edges of her vision. _It's just going to get worse and worse, and I'll die…_

* * *

><p><em>TBC<em>


	4. Chapter 4

Huge thanks to **Vilinye**, whose well timed review rescued me from fanfic depression. Also to **Vilinye** (again, lol), **bagel** and **lilycullen1997** for adding this fic to their alert list. I think I've pretty much cracked the plot of this, so once I've shaken off the Evil Cold of Doom, I shall progress rapidly, I hope. Enjoy this installment!

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter Four<strong>

* * *

><p>'Sarah Jane.'<p>

"Team Sarah Jane" turned as one to see Haresh Chandra coming up to them, his black brows meeting in a strong line over his aquiline nose.

'Great, it's my favourite person,' Clyde muttered, earning himself a dig in the ribs from Rani, who smiled up at her father.

'Hi, Dad. What's up?'

For a moment, Haresh's smile flashed before he returned to his official-headmaster-persona.

'I wanted to apologise to Sarah Jane for losing Sky. I'm deeply sorry; I honestly don't know what's happened. The most I can tell you is that she's not in any of the school buildings, and there's definitely no danger – the fire brigade are leaving now,' he ended, nodding towards the bulky firemen who could be seen clambering into their trucks. His next words were said against the backdrop of fading sirens. 'Is there anything I can do to help?'

Sarah Jane managed to smile. 'Thanks, Haresh, but I think I'll be fine.' She paused to glance at her young friends. 'Actually, you could help by allowing me to borrow Rani – just until we find her, you know? Rani and Sky have become very close.'

'She asked if I'd be her sort-of sister,' Rani contributed, giving her father the big-eyed little-girl pleading look she knew he could never resist. 'Honestly, Dad, I really _could_ help.'

Haresh glared at Clyde. 'And I suppose you're going to go along for the ride as usual, Langer?'

Clyde nonchalantly put his elbow on Sarah Jane's shoulder. ''Course. Couldn't leave these two to look for the kid without me, could I?'

'Hmmm,' Haresh said. 'Take them both, Sarah Jane, if you're sure they're not going to get in the way. I'm sending all the kids home now anyway; there's no point in keeping them here when the electric's still out.' He frowned. 'It's really very strange. I was given to understand that the back-up generator would always kick in when this sort of thing happened, but apparently not.' He shrugged and a smile ghosted across his features again. 'Well, I'll leave you to it. See you later, Rani, and give us a shout if you do need help, Sarah Jane.'

'I'll do that. Thanks, Haresh,' Sarah Jane called as he left them, his tall suit-clad form disappearing into one of the school's side doors.

'Finally!' Clyde hissed. 'So, what's the plan, Sarah Jane?'

'We've got two things to worry about,' Sarah Jane began, her hands going to her hips as she thought aloud. 'First: Sky. Haresh said she's definitely not in any of the school buildings, which rules that out, so we'll have to search the grounds … but I don't think she's far. I don't believe in coincidences; the problems with the school's electricity must be linked to her disappearance. And then there's _that_,' she went on, gesturing to the phone in Clyde's hand.

Clyde turned his phone over and over in his hands, studying it. 'You think the phone's on the blink 'cos it's connected to the internet. I need to go back into school anyway; I left my gear in the computer lab. I could check –'

'The electric's off, remember?' Rani interrupted. 'There'll be nothing to see.'

Clyde grinned. 'Sure about that? One thing I've learned after all this time: never say never.'

Sarah Jane nodded. 'Yes; Haresh said the failure of the generator was odd. That message on your phone and Mr Smith is also – odd. Check the computers, Clyde, it won't hurt. And here,' she finished, tossing him her sonic lipstick. 'You might need this.'

Clyde grinned again as he caught it neatly. 'Thanks. Never thought I'd be so glad to see a lippy. And, I've got my own little gizmo, my torch. Laters, girls!' He sauntered off, his leisurely pace picking up into a run as he rounded the corner.

Sarah Jane sagged back against the wall, as if Clyde had taken her fortitude along with her lipstick. 'Sky,' she whispered. 'Where are you?'

Rani's eyes went to the park across the road from the school. 'Could she have run off into the park?'

'It's a big park,' Sarah Jane said despairingly. 'How could we find her?'

'Wouldn't the watch help?'

'It's gone flat,' the older woman told her, double checking the gold-fronted watch on her wrist. 'I checked that just after I phoned Mr Smith. That's why I'm certain there's more to all this than meets the eye. That watch is _never _supposed to die.'

Rani took her arm, gently pulling her away from the support of the wall. 'C'mon, then. We'll just have to do it the old-fashioned way.'

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, Clyde was quite enjoying his trip through the dark and deserted school corridors. When there was no immediate danger of rampaging aliens, it was kinda awesome being able to play James Bond with his super-slim mini torch and Sarah Jane's sonic lipstick. All the same, he didn't linger; he was as worried about Sky as his friends, and was eager to rejoin Sarah Jane and Rani as soon as possible. Consequently, it was not long before he was outside the door of the computer lab – and he blessed Sarah Jane's foresight: it was locked.<p>

'This'll sort _that_,' he told it, firing a sonic beam at the lock and grinning when he heard the 'click' of it unlock. 'Cool. The lippy strikes again.'

He pushed the door open and stopped on the threshold.

Power cut or no power cut, every monitor was glowing, THE END IS NIGH picked out in the same neon shade that Clyde had seen on his smartphone screen.

'Freaky,' he muttered, heading towards his seat to extract his bag from where it lurked in the recesses under the table. He glanced at the computer's 'pizza box' as he bend over, and his eyes widened. 'Even freakier. There's no lights. Something's keeping that message on-screen, but it ain't the lecky…'

He grabbed his bag and backed out of the room, half expecting the door to jam shut beyond the powers of the sonic, trapping him. He gave a sigh of relief when his imaginings did not come to pass – only to break off in a muffled exclamation when someone grabbed him as he emerged into the blanketing darkness of the corridor.

* * *

><p>'This is hopeless,' Sarah Jane said after fifteen futile minutes of scouting the park. 'Sky's no outdoor fiend. Why would she have run here in the first place?'<p>

'Maybe she's not in the park,' Rani agreed, her eyes scanning as far as she could see. 'Short of going through every single bush, I don't think we'd find her if she is.' She glanced at Sarah Jane. 'She does know how to get home herself, doesn't she?'

Sarah Jane groaned, one hand rubbing the back of her neck. 'I doubt it, Rani, she's never had to –'

'I've got it!' Rani burst out. 'K9!'

Sarah Jane gave her a weary look. 'We need Luke for that, and Luke got a new phone when Sky got hers. In fact, they've got the same model. If we can't get hold of Sky –'

'We won't be able to get hold of Luke,' Rani finished for her despondently. Her phone vibrated, and she glanced at it carelessly, only to turn to Sarah Jane with a beam. 'We're saved!'

'How?'

'That,' she answered, wagging her phone back and forward in front of the older woman's face, 'was Santiago. He and Jo are in Oxford, something about a fee protest –'

'They can find Luke!' Sarah Jane finished for her, grasping her arm and giving it a little shake. 'I'll phone Jo right away.' She broke away from Rani and pulled out her phone, her hands trembling a little, and made the call.

It rang. And rang.

'It is ringing, but she's not answering,' Sarah Jane murmured. 'Try Santiago's. Surely between the two of them – oh, Jo! Jo, it's Sarah Jane Smith here, we met –' She stopped and rolled her eyes at Rani, clearly cut off by an avalanche of words from the other woman.

Rani snickered, finding it all too easy to imagine how Jo had responded.

'Listen, Rani says you're in Oxford? Right. I see. I was wondering –'

Yet again she was cut off, but Sarah Jane Smith had not been a journalist for forty years without learning how to get her own way when necessary. She interrupted the stream of words with a firm 'Jo, I need your help. I need you to go to Pembroke College and ask for Luke Smith. It's urgent - What?'

_What is she saying?_ Rani mouthed at her, but Sarah Jane held up a hand and started talking again.

'That's exactly why I've phoned you, all the kids have smartphones these days…' She flashed a quick smile at Rani. 'Except the sensible ones like Rani and your Santiago – Really? You think? OK, I'll expect you later, then.'

She took the mobile away from her ear and looked at it. 'That was interesting.'

'What?' Rani demanded. 'What did she say? Are they coming here? Is she gonna bring Luke?'

Sarah Jane looked down at her phone, one finger tapping its smooth shell. 'She said she was about to try to contact me,' she began slowly. 'Apparently she had a call from Liz, who used to work with the Doctor – she's had problems with her computer as well. That same message: the end is nigh. Jo wondered if it's only affecting people who know the Doctor…'

'The Doctor must be in trouble!' Rani exclaimed, her mind whirring. 'Maybe that's what upset Sky; didn't you say that she's acutely sensitive to electrical vibrations, no matter how tiny?'

Sarah Jane stared at her. '"The whole universe might just shiver",' she quoted softly. 'That's what the Doctor said to me, last time. That if he ever died, the whole universe would shiver…'

'But it's not,' Rani pointed out, starting to jog. 'We're the only ones who're noticing. Perhaps he's not dead yet… What time are Jo and Santiago coming?'

'As soon as possible,' Sarah Jane told her. 'They're going to collect Luke and K9, and come straight here.' She threw Rani a smile. 'That was brilliant, Rani: once we have K9 we'll be able to find Sky and hopefully discover what's going on with the Doctor!' With that, she picked up speed and jogged on ahead, leaving Rani following, shaking her head.

_If I'm that fit when I'm her age…_

* * *

><p>'<em>There<em> you are!' Clyde burst out aggrievedly when they returned to the school car park. 'What were you thinking, just disappearing like that when you know I've no phone? What if you'd got into trouble?'

'We didn't,' Rani soothed. 'We just went into the park to look for Sky.'

The indignation that had stiffened Clyde's posture vanished, and he relaxed, his features creasing in worry instead. 'But you didn't find her,' he said, stating the obvious.

'Luke's on his way, we hope,' Sarah Jane told hm. 'With K9, Jo and Santiago. Once they're here, we'll be able to find Sky _and_ get to the bottom of this 'the end is nigh' business.'

'It was on the school computers,' Clyde remembered. 'It was freaky. It wasn't anything to do with the lecky, 'cos none of the lights were on – that message is powering _itself_, Sarah Jane!'

'We'll stop it, don't worry.' She glanced at her phone's outer display. 'It's almost three, and –'

'Over here!' a voice yelled from the row of thick bushes that lined a strip of land to one side of the school grounds, making Rani and Sarah Jane jump. 'She's over here!'

Sarah Jane started running, and Rani glanced at Clyde as they followed on her heels. He was wearing an odd expression.

'It's that Al kid,' she said accusingly. 'What were _you_ thinking, getting him roped into all this?'

Clyde's only response was a sheepish grin.

* * *

><p>TBC<p>

* * *

><p>Make my day and hit the pretty review button below? I'd love to know what you think!<p> 


	5. Chapter 5

_Sorry this chapter has taken so long. I was struck down by a nasty evil cold of doom, complete with lots of lovely sinus pain and general brain muzziness. I did managed to write 500 words or so, but my plot bunnies seemed as stuffed up as I was, thus the delay… And after all that, this chapter is filler! I must confess I considered deleting it altogether because I'm not sure it contributes much, but I enjoyed writing it, and hopefully you'll enjoy reading it, and it does move the plot on a smidgeon. If you squint…_

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter Five<strong>

* * *

><p>When Sarah Jane reached her daughter and found an unknown someone bending over her, she reacted instinctively.<p>

'What are you doing? Get _away_ from her!'

The other person flinched back, blinking, and Sarah Jane bit her lip. Common sense had returned; she had been summoned here, after all. This small person, who was blinking up at her reproachfully from behind absurdly large glasses, must be the summoner.

'I'm sorry,' she said, kneeling down at Sky's side. The little girl was curled up, her hands lying limply. She was bleached white; even her lips held little colour, and Sarah Jane brushed back a strand of hair from the child's face.

'How long has she been like this?'

'She – she was like this when I found her,' the boy said. 'Clyde said to try the bushes, just in case, so I did and she was like this an' – an' then _you_ came.' He sounded aggrieved.

'_Clyde_ told you to search the bushes?' Sarah Jane repeated, confused. 'How do you know Clyde?'

''Cos I'm Sky's friend,' the boy said simply. 'An' Clyde and Rani are her friends too.' His eyes returned to Sky. 'What's wrong with her?'

Sarah Jane sat back, chewing her lip. 'I don't know yet, but we'll find out,' she said firmly. 'The first thing is to get her inside; she can't be left like this.' _And if she's being affected by the electricity in the atmosphere, outside is the last place she should be_. 'You say you're a friend of Sky's. Would you do something for her?'

''Course, once I know who _you_ are,' the boy responded, an almost comical severity edging his tone. 'You just came bursting in like – like –'

'A bat out of hell?' Sarah Jane suggested, a smile flickering across her face. 'I suppose I did. Sorry about that. I'm Sarah Jane Smith, Sky's mum, and you are -?'

'Al,' the boy said. 'What d'you want me to do?'

'Find Rani and Clyde. Tell them to go to my car and get the tarp from the back, and bring it here. We can use it as a stretcher.'

'Got it!' Al said. He took three steps away before stopping abruptly, pivoting to look at her. 'Uh, Miss Smith, don't I need your car keys?'

Sarah Jane smiled broadly. 'Don't worry, Al. Clyde knows how to open my car. Off you go.'

The smile lingered until he vanished through the curtain of shiny green leaves that separated them from the school grounds, and Sarah Jane's gaze returned to her daughter. Sky was still motionless, but her lips seemed pinched, as though pain was penetrating the depths of her unconsciousness.

'What's happened to you, kid?' she murmured.

She was answered by a tiny sound, so faint that it hardly qualified as a moan, and instantly Sarah Jane was bending over Sky, calling her name as gently as she could.

The moan this time was more definite.

'Oh, thank you,' Sarah Jane breathed; it was almost a prayer. 'Sky, it's your mum. It's all right. You're going to be fine.'

This time there was no response; Sky had returned to oblivion, and Sarah Jane found that there was nothing she could do but wait for Al to return with Clyde and Rani.

She took her coat off and covered Sky's shoulders with it before sitting with her arms around her knees, trying not to panic.

She'd never been very good at just _waiting_, after all.

* * *

><p>Al's eyes nearly popped out of his head when he saw what Clyde used to open Sarah Jane's car.<p>

'It – it's lipstick!' he sputtered as the older boy shoved the cosmetic into his pocket and opened the boot. 'How did that open the car?'

Rani put her arm around his shoulders and grinned down on him from her lofty height. 'It's not just _any_ lipstick. Stick around and you'll find out – in time.'

Al's eyes narrowed as he looked up at her. 'What d'you mean?'

'Stop all that nattering and help!' Clyde bellowed, throwing a cross look at them over his shoulder. 'Rani, what does the tarp look like?'

She went to him. 'Isn't it the spider-silk one? If so, it folds down really tiny. Try the poky spots,' she advised. 'You know what Sarah Jane is about – er- special equipment. She'd try to keep it out of sight.'

'Good thinking,' Clyde said, leaning forward and half crawling into the boot in his efforts to reach the back. 'Ah – got it!' He emerged triumphant, with what looked like a fine silk handkerchief in one hand.

Al's brow creased. 'Miss Smith said she wanted a _tarp_,' he emphasised. '_That _ain't no tarp.'

'The first thing you'll learn, Al,' Clyde told him as he closed the boot, having shoved the tarp into his pocket and pulled out the lipstick once again, 'is that nothing is ever quite as it seems with our Sarah Jane. OK, she's locked. Let's go!' He took off at a run in the direction of the bushes and Sky, his legs picking up the pace as his sense of urgency visibly increased.

Al rubbed his nose, absently pushing his glasses up. 'I'm starting to see why Sky's so strange,' he remarked.

Rani grabbed his hand and pulled as she started to run, an action that would have offended his eleven year old dignity at any other time.

'Believe me, Al,' she called as they traced Clyde's footsteps, 'you haven't seen anything yet!'

* * *

><p>Sarah Jane could not hide her relief when Clyde emerged from the bushes, a whisp of something faintly glowing hanging out of his pocket showing that he'd brought the spidersilk.<p>

'How's she doing?' he asked, coming to hunker down beside her.

'She's still out of it,' Sarah Jane responded, whispering. 'Mostly. She came to a few minutes ago, but went again almost immediately. She's in a lot of pain, I think.'

Clyde pulled out the tarp from pocket and shook it out. 'Let's get the kid inside,' he said. 'If she's picking up electrical whatsits from the thingummyjig, she'll be more comfy there. Won't she?' he ended dubiously, and Sarah Jane found herself smiling. Clyde could always hearten her.

'It doesn't hurt, at any rate,' she agreed, and rose to help him with laying the tarp out flat on the ground; the stuff was awkward to handle as it clung to one's fingers, just as cobwebs do.

'Are you _sure_ this will hold Sparky's weight?' Clyde asked after struggling to disentangle himself from it. 'It doesn't seem very… substantial.'

'It's the strongest fabric in the universe,' Sarah Jane told him. 'It'll make nothing of Sky's weight. Right, let's move her, shall we?'

'Yup. Got her feet, Sarah Jane?'

'_I'm_ ready. I was waiting for you!' she responded tartly, looking up from where she was positioned at her daughter's ankles. 'One – two – three – _hup_!'

'And down she goes!' Clyde commented as they gently lowered the child onto the spidersilk. 'Now all we need is – '

'Us!' Rani supplemented, batting leaves out of her way as she came through, with Al tagging behind. 'Oh, you've got her moved already,' she went on, sounding vaguely surprised.

'Finally!' Clyde exclaimed, earning himself a daggered glare. 'Rani, take Sparky's feet from Sarah Jane. We're going to move her inside.'

'Who died and made you boss?' Rani muttered, but she obeyed anyway. 'Haven't you forgotten one thing, though?'

'What's that?' Sarah Jane asked, her brown wrinkling.

'You'll have to return Sarah Jane's lipstick,' Rani explained patiently to Clyde. 'Dad'll have gone by now and the place'll be locked. I don't suppose you can carry Sky and open the doors!'

'I'm wounded by your lack of faith!' Clyde said, dramatically clutching his heart. 'But yeah, good point. Ready to catch, Sarah Jane?' He tossed the sonic lipstick in the air as he finished speaking, and grinned when Sarah Jane caught it neatly. 'Nice.'

She nodded at him. 'Well, if you've all finished talking –'

'We're moving, we're moving,' Clyde interrupted. 'Go on, Rani, pick it up a bit, or I'll get Al to replace you.'

'Oh, shut up, you!' was Rani's retort, and they vanished through the rhododendron foliage, leaving Sarah Jane and Al staring at each other.

'Am I coming inside with you?' Al asked, his eyes growing impossibly large behind his glasses.

Sarah Jane studied him for a long moment, struggling with her reluctance to embroil yet another child in her dangerous life. Yet her sense of fairness reminded her that Sky deserved to have a friend of her own age, just as Luke had done. And Al had already proven his loyalty to Sky, and his ability to follow instructions quickly and without argument…

'Of course you're coming,' she said aloud, putting her hands on his shoulders and propelling him forward. 'Let's go!'

* * *

><p>'Where <em>are<em> we going?' Al asked when Sarah Jane led him ever deeper into the school building. 'I thought we were just gonna go to hall.'

'We're going to the gym,' Sarah Jane explained. 'It's … safer.'

'Why?' Al demanded.

Sarah Jane said nothing until they reached the double doors that separated the gym from the corridor. Then she turned and, once again, put her hands on the young boy's shoulders.

'Sky … is not like other children,' she began gently. 'If you stay with us you'll –'

She paused and began to smile as someone yelled 'Mum!'.

'It's Luke,' she murmured, much to Al's bewilderment. 'Luke's here.' She turned back to Al. 'Go on into Clyde and Rani; I'm going to get Luke before he ends up wandering all over the building. Go on,' she repeated, pushing him through the double doors.

She watched him through the round porthole windows, once again questioning her decision to involve him in her life. Her qualms were alleviated somewhat when she saw how he instantly went to kneel at Sky's side, ignoring Clyde and Rani who seemed to be arguing about something, if Clyde's waving arms and Rani's hands-on-hips stance were anything to go by.

'Mum!' she heard again, and she called back in answer, knowing that Luke's superior senses would guide him to her quickly.

She was unprepared for the relief that washed over her when her son finally appeared before her, all earnest dark eyes and ruffled hair and careless scarves. She put Sky out of her mind for the moment and threw her arms around him, burying her nose in the depths of the soft scratchiness of his navy blue scarf.

'Oh, Luke,' she whispered. 'It's so good to see you.'

He pulled back to look down at her. 'What's the matter, Mum? Sky's not -?'

She shook her head. 'She's still unconscious. We've moved her into the gym; Clyde and Rani are arguing about what to do next –'

'Nothing new there, then,' Luke interjected with a grin.

Sarah Jane smiled faintly and continued. 'And there's those strange messages on all our phones – did Jo tell you?' she asked, interrupting herself. 'We think there's something wrong with the Doctor and to top it all off, we've picked up another straggler!' Her tone revealed her exasperation, and Luke grinned again.

'Of course. Team Sarah Jane must go on,' he teased, before turning serious. 'Jo and Santiago are in the car; they weren't sure whether to come in or not. I think,' he added thoughtfully, 'they're taking a snooze. Jo said something about being dead on her feet and too old to sleep in newspaper, whatever that means, so –' He shrugged. 'What next?'

Sarah Jane took his hand. 'We check on Sky,' she said firmly. 'Then we'll go home and find out what's going on.'

'And how to fix it,' Luke answered with equal firmness. ''Cos that's what we do, isn't it?'

**TBC.**

Reviews/comments would be amazing... and a belated but heartfelt thank you to** IsobelFrances, Vilinye **and** Avatar Rikki **for their comments on the last chapter!


	6. Chapter 6

_Thanks yet again to **Vilinye** (yay, got the spelling right without checking, I think), and **AvatarRikki** for their reviews and encouragement, despite Chapter Five being... well, a bit fillerish. Hopefully there's more of interest here..._

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><p><strong>Chapter Six<strong>

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><p>'We need to insulate her, protect her from the electricity that's causing her pain,' Rani was saying as she and Clyde tried to think how best to help Sky. 'The question is, how?'<p>

Clyde looked down at the small girl on the wooden floor, the boards marked from several years of abuse from teenagers. 'She seems better already,' he observed. 'Look, her colour's returning.'

'Wood doesn't conduct electricity,' Al piped up. 'My dad's an electrician, an' he says so.'

'Rubber,' Luke called as he entered, with Sarah Jane on his heels. 'Aren't there rubber mats in the games cupboard?'

Rani and Clyde exchanged glances, and shrugged.

'Genius boy returns,' Clyde remarked, grinning as he crossed the gym to 'high five' Luke's hand with his own. 'Right in the nick of time, Lukey-boy.'

'Genius boy with common sense,' Rani added with a grin of her own. 'Now _there's_ a winning combination. Sarah Jane -'

'Already on it!' the older woman responded, turning neatly on her heel to fire her sonic lipstick at the games cupboard. 'Now go and get those mats!'

As the kids obeyed, Sarah Jane knelt down beside Sky, who was starting to show signs of life. Her eyelids fluttered, and one hand tried a limp movement.

'Sky?' Sarah Jane prompted, taking the hand in hers. 'Sky, can you hear me?'

She could hear thuds and the sounds of half-hearted argument behind her as the four kids attempted to manoeuvre one of the heavy rubber mats out; a second louder thump and vibrations that tingled through her knees and calves informed her that the foursome had succeeded in their task.

'We're going to move you now, honey,' she murmured, stroking the little girl's forehead.

'Noooooooo,' Sky whimpered. 'It hurts... _everything_ hurts, it's all wrong...'

'Just hang in there, Sparky,' Clyde said, coming to take the little girl's shoulders. 'Rani and I have got you; we're gonna swing you on this nice mat and it should stop hurting.' _We hope_, he mouthed as the pair carefully lifted Sky and placed her gently on the mat.

Sarah Jane lowered herself onto the mat and bent over her daughter again. 'Is that any better?' she asked anxiously.

Sky's brown eyes popped properly open for the first time, looking darker than ever in her white face. 'Sarah Jane,' she whispered.

'You Smiths,' Clyde declared, leaning over so that Sky could see him. 'It's _Mum_, Sparky. She's your mum, not "Sarah Jane",' he ended, rolling his eyes as he pronounced the name.

Sky's eyes travelled from Clyde to Sarah Jane. 'Mum,' she said, a tiny small hovering at the corners of her mouth. She blinked; once, twice. 'What happened?'

'We're not sure,' Sarah Jane told her, using a hand to quickly dispose of the tears that had come when Sky had called her "Mum" at long last. 'We found you unconscious in the bushes.'

Sky's brow creased as she tried to remember. 'It hurt,' she began. 'Like... tingling, all over, and it got worse and worse, and my _head_...' Her voice hitched on a tiny sob. 'It hurt so much, I didn't know being human could hurt so much...'

'Oh, Sky.' Sarah Jane pulled the child into her arms. 'Being human means that sometimes you will hurt. You and Luke may not get ill in the way other people do, but there'll still be things that will cause you pain...' She trailed off, her eyes rising to meet Luke's.

'And when it happens, it's a danger sign,' he said urgently. 'Like me and the Rakweed. Mum, if Sky's well enough to move we need to go home. _Now_.'

'Yeah,' Sky agreed. 'The pain, it was as if... as if the world was burning up.' Her eyes were huge in her small face. 'Whatever it is, it's bad, and it's coming soon... very soon.' She shuddered. 'It's better in here, but I can still _feel_ it...'

Clyde hunkered down to look at her. 'It might hurt when we take you out of here,' he warned. 'Your mate Al and wonder-bro Luke helped us insulate you from the lecky charges, but we can't take the gym with us - '

'Dad wouldn't approve,' Rani added with a flashing grin that extracted an weak smile in answer from Sky. 'D'you think you can handle it?'

Sarah Jane could feel how Sky flinched at the thought of exposing herself to that pain again, but she could also feel how the girl literally stiffened herself to face it, and fierce pride warmed her heart and tightened her throat. As a result, she said nothing, but loosened her hold on her daughter, so that Sky could move away.

The girl held out her hands, one each to Clyde and Rani. 'Help me up,' she said as strongly as she could. 'I wanna go home.'

Clyde's beam stretched from ear to ear. 'There's my Sparky,' he said as he helped the child to her feet and steadied her when she wobbled. 'Let's go and save the world!'

Between them, Clyde and Rani began to guide Sky out of the gym.

'Wait!' Luke called, dashing into the games cupboard. 'Had an idea,' his voice continued, sounding distorted and muffled. 'No need to put Sky through hell if we don't need to.' He re-emerged with a smaller, lighter version of the mat they'd carried out earlier. 'Saw this when we went for that,' he went on, nodding towards it. 'It won't be as good, but it might help.'

Clyde accepted the rolls from him and frowned. 'What do we do with them?'

'Wrap her in them,' Luke said firmly, attempting to demonstrate. He frowned in his turn when the rubbery stuff proved awkward. 'H'mmm, we need something to hold it – keep her wrapped, Rani!' he added, dashing across to where Sarah Jane was standing beside a blinking and bemused Al. 'Give us that spidersilk and then we can get going!'

He was as good as his word; less than ten minutes after he finished cocooning Sky in his rubber-and-spidersilk mixture found them back at the cars. Luke returned to his own, still occupied by the snoozing Jones contingent, and the other five clambered into Sarah Jane's little Nissan. Despite their precautions, Sky was dangerously close to lapsing into unconsciousness once more, and Clyde – due to his shorter height – got into the back with her and Al, allowing Rani to share the front with Sarah Jane.

That lady adjusted her mirror and glanced casually at her watch. 'It's five to five,' she commented. 'Sky, I think we'll be caught in the traffic. Do you think you can manage until we get home?'

A muffled whimper was her only response, and Sarah Jane met Clyde's eyes over Sky's head.

'She's about to go again, Sarah Jane,' Clyde said. 'Drive fast – or as fast as you can.'

'And get done by speed cameras, no thanks,' Rani retorted, glancing over her shoulder. 'I think we'd rather get home in one piece.'

'We _will_ get home in one piece,' Sarah Jane told them firmly as she drove the car out of the school gates and turned down the lane. 'As _quickly_ and as _safely_ as we can.'

None of the children would ever let her forget those words, for just as they reached the main road, the sun went out. The car's clock was the only source of light: a neon green that blinked 5:02pm at them.

And something screeched and landed on the car's roof with a raucous scratching that sounded unnervingly like claws trying to get a grip on metal...

* * *

><p>Sarah Jane had stopped the car automatically when everything went dark. She was trembling so violently that she was glad of the blackness; she did not want the kids to see how frightened she was. That screech had revived some very old and unpleasant memories.<p>

'Wh-what happened?' she heard Rani ask in a thin tone that was most unlike the usually confident girl. 'Where'd the sun go?'

The – _something_ – on the roof squawked loudly, and there was another furious rattle of claws, and the car shook from the force of the onslaught.

'Shh,' Clyde hissed. 'There's something out there – and I've a nasty idea it's hungry.' The clattering on the roof became uglier, more targeted, and Clyde gave a suppressed yelp that betrayed his fear more than any words could have done.

'I wish the sun would come back,' Sarah Jane heard Rani whisper. 'It's always easier when you can see.'

Sarah Jane could not disagree with this, but it was becoming clear that sitting still wasn't helping either. She took a deep breath, clenched her hands around the steering wheel, and started the car again, her lips pressed into a thin line as she began to drive very, very slowly, praying that she would not run into a building, another vehicle, or something living.

There was another clatter and squawk, and the entire car rocked, more violently this time, as the – _thing_ – vanished, but they could hear its shrieks fading into the distance.

And the sun returned with such stunning suddenness that Sarah Jane was momentarily blinded, jerking the car to a stop once again. Once the retina burn had faded from her eyes, she turned to check on her passengers.

Rani's skin was the colour of very weak coffee, but she was composed and even managed a small smile. Al had folded himself in a compact ball at his side of the back seat, his arms wrapped protectively around his head, and Clyde had slid as far down in his seat as he could, his arms closed tightly around the brown-haired limp huddle that was Sky. They were lit by rays of sunlight streaming through a vicious rip in the roof, and Sarah Jane's breath caught at the sight. The edges of the metal were like shark's teeth, the wicked points gleaming as they refracted the light.

'Are we all safe?' she asked in the voice that only just remained steady. 'Clyde – were you or Sky hurt at all?' Her eyes returned to that cruel jag, and she inwardly flinched at the thought of whatever had caused it making contact with vulnerable human flesh.

'Not a scratch on any of us,' Clyde assured her with a touch of his old jauntiness, but his grip on Sky did not ease. 'Sky, though – she's not so good, Sarah Jane.' The use of Sky's name rather than her nickname showed how worried he was. 'It's as if she's gone catatonic or something.'

'But she's breathing?'

'Yeah, yeah, she's _alive_, she's just like… totally out of it.'

Sarah Jane tore her eyes from her daughter and turned around, willing her shaking body to still its tremors. They were some streets away from Bannerman Road, and she was desperate to get Sky home – and find out if Luke was there, and in one piece.

Then something struck her. Apart from themselves, they were alone on what was normally a busy road at rush hour.

Apparently, the same idea had occurred to Rani.

'Where's everyone gone?' she asked, beginning to sound panicked. She had her phone out, her fingers already moving on the keypad. 'What if Mum and Dad -'

Sarah Jane reached across and stilled the moving fingers. 'We'll find out soon enough. I'm sure they'll be fine,' she went on when Rani opened her mouth to protest. 'Let's just concentrate on getting home, h'mm?' She squeezed Rani's fingers a final time, and began to drive, trying to ignore the uncanny quiet.

And then they turned the corner into Bannerman Road, and found themselves suddenly, shockingly, confronted with the sight and sounds of a medieval battlefield: armour, rearing horses, tattered banners that blew in the wind, threads of gold winking in the sun. They could hear screams of pain and fear and rage from man and beast alike … and then they saw something else.

'Crikey,' Clyde breathed, having recovered somewhat from his earlier shock. 'It's the Middle Ages versus the Giant Pepperpots.'

'No,' Sarah Jane told him tensely, stopped the car with a foot jammed hard on the brake, not even caring when the car bumped along the kerb in protest. 'Those aren't pepperpots, Clyde. It's the Daleks. The Daleks are back.'

Her voice shook from a complex mixture of emotions: simple terror, disbelief, and always, _always_, the nagging feeling of guilt that once upon a time she had been unable to convince the Doctor to wipe out the Daleks at birth.

She glanced at the car's clock again and frowned, a further sense of unease prickling down her spine at what she saw. It was still 5:02pm. Hurriedly, she checked her watch: 5:02pm.

'Rani, does your phone have the time?' she asked, carefully casual.

Rani's eyes flickered sideways to Sarah Jane and down, back to the mobile that was still clutched in her hand. 'It's 5:02,' she said, and her eyes widened as she looked again. 'But it can't be. It was five to when we left school and that was _ages_ ago.'

'Maybe whatever turned out the sun stopped all the clocks,' Clyde suggested.

'No, I don't think it's that at all,' Sarah Jane whispered, watching the battle that raged in front of them. 'My watch is still ticking, I can hear it. I think it's more than the clocks just stopping. Something's gone wrong with time itself!'

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><p><strong>TBC<strong>


	7. Chapter 7

_Thanks to** najella, Sol3Bug, IsobelFrances, Avatar Rikki, **and** Vilinye **for r__eviewingthe last chapter! It is very much appreciated. Here's the next chapter; things are starting to pick up. I just hope this story isn't being too glacially slow - the truth is that I tend to do character driven stuff better than plot, so this type of fic can be tricky. As always, all feedback/concrit very welcome!_

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><p><strong>Chapter Seven<strong>

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><p>'This is all a bad dream,' Al muttered to himself as the others in the car talked about stuff that <em>made no sense<em>, like pepperpots and time and Daleks. He pinched himself and yelped, attracting Clyde's attention.

'It's no dream,' the older boy told him over Sky's head. 'This is real – but it's all wrong. What are we gonna do, Sarah Jane?'

His gaze switched from Al to the woman driving the car, and Al unfolded himself from his foetal ball in order to sit up properly, pushing his glasses firmly into place as he did so. P'rhaps his sister was right and the world was coming to an end – even if it wasn't 2012 yet – and if that was the case he didn't want to miss it.

'What d'you mean, _wrong_?' he asked Clyde when no answer was forthcoming from Miss Smith – Sarah Jane.

'Something has thrown the timelines out of kilter,' Sarah Jane said, responding to both Clyde and Al in one go. She sounded as if she was talking more to herself than to them. 'Look at them, warriors from Britain's distant past and Daleks fighting in front of us, right here and right now. Daleks may be able to travel in time - but not even they could transfer the Wars of the Roses to London in 2011!'

'_More_ history,' Clyde muttered in pretended disgust. 'Honestly, Sarah Jane, since hanging around with you I've learnt more history than I ever did from Mrs Pittman!'

'That's because you spent all of her lessons pulling faces, drawing cartoons and making stuff up,' Rani told him caustically. 'No wonder she said there was no way in heaven or hell she'd take you on for A'level.'

'Suited _me_ just fine!' Clyde retorted, glaring at her. 'Seriously though, what can we do?'

There was a long silence, and then Sarah Jane said, very quietly, 'I'm not sure there's anything we _can_ do.'

'But -' Clyde started, while Rani's eyes went very wide.

'Think about it!' Sarah Jane told them. 'This disruption of timelines is almost certainly linked to the Doctor. If something has happened to him, there's nothing we can do – at least, not alone. This isn't like the last time, when his death was faked. _This_ is what the universe should be if the Doctor died. _Wrong_. And if he's dead – really dead – I don't know if we can fix it.'

'So you're just gonna give up?' Clyde pressed, disbelief permeating his tone. 'Just like that?'

'_Clyde_!' Rani hissed, glancing towards Sarah Jane, but the older woman hardly twitched.

'I'm not giving up,' Sarah Jane told him tonelessly after an endless moment. 'But everything ends, Clyde. There comes a time when everyone and everything just … stops. That's the nature of the universe, and no amount of complaining can change that.'

'It still sounds like giving up to me,' Clyde repeated stubbornly. 'We're not even home yet. We haven't got Luke with us, or K9, and there's always Mr Smith. Why not see what they come up with before talking about everything ending?'

His tone verged on hostile as he finished, and Al found himself waited tensely for Sarah Jane's response. Would she throw Clyde out, and leave him to fend for himself?

At that point Clyde was distracted by his phone, and he frowned as he pulled it out and stared at it. The frown deepened, and when he spoke again it was in his usual tone. 'Sarah Jane, have a look this,' and he passed it to her.

Al fully expected the older woman to tell him what he could do with his phone, but she accepted it without comment, her eyes meeting Clyde's as she did so.

'The message has changed,' she said after a pause, tilting the screen so that she could see better. 'Earlier it said 'The end is nigh'. Now it says "help". It says _help_!' she repeated, new purpose surging through her voice. 'You're right, Clyde. This isn't the time to give up... Sky? Sky, can you wake up?'

'I thought she was coming round a minute ago,' Clyde said, giving the little girl a gentle shake. 'But she's out of it again. What d'you want, her mobile?'

At Sarah Jane's nod, he dug around in the various layers surrounding Sky, and gave a small crow of triumph when he found it, flicking a thumb across the screen to activate it. 'The same,' he said, handing it to Sarah Jane.

She studied it carefully and returned it. 'Right,' she began decisively, 'I'm getting out. We're just around the corner from Bannerman Road I'm hoping that Luke is nearby. Once we're all together, we can plan.'

'Sarah Jane -' Rani protested just as Clyde exclaimed, 'You can't go by yourself! It's dangerous out there!'

'I'm not going alone,' she told them simply. 'You need to stay with Sky and Al, Clyde. Rani's with me.'

Clyde slumped back against the seat. 'Left holding the babies _again_!' he groaned, provoking Al into indignant response.

'I don't need to be babysat! I can look after myself!'

Sarah Jane paused as she prepared to get out of the car and looked at him. 'You're staying here,' she repeated flatly. 'As Clyde says, it's dangerous out there, and I'm not going to be responsible for something happening to you. So long as you stay inside the car, all three of you, you should be fine.'

'H'mmm.' Clyde managed to sound both disgusted and sceptical.

Sarah Jane tossed him another quick smile as she locked the door. 'Just lie low and don't attract attention – and you'll be fine. I promise.'

With Rani at her side, she began to walk purposefully away from them, and Clyde and Al watched as she disappeared around the corner.

Al turned to Clyde, who was making a sustained effort to rouse Sky. 'Is it always like this?'

The elder boy glanced up. 'What, danger and the threat of global destruction? Heh. Yeah. Welcome to Team Sarah Jane, mate, and don't forget that when we get out of this you'll _still_ be expected to go home and do your homework.'

Al squeaked and fell back against his seat, still not entirely certain whether he was dreaming or not. Save the world _and_ be home for dinner? Weird. Just … _weird_.

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><p>As they rounded the corner that took them onto Bannerman Road and the sounds of battle grew ever louder, Sarah Jane put a warning hand on Rani's arm, halting her.<p>

'What is it?' Rani murmured.

Sarah Jane looked up from her watch. 'There's a fight going on in the garden,' she murmured back. 'We haven't got any means of defending ourselves, so we need to be very careful.'

'What about the sonic?' Rani whispered, pressing up close to Sarah Jane.

The older woman shook her head. 'It's of no use against the Daleks, we'd never get close enough to use it, and it's equally useless against non-mechanical weapons. No, this time we're depending on our wits and our speed. Ready?'

'Always,' Rani affirmed, and Sarah Jane squeezed her arm.

'Good, let's go!'

Sarah Jane hunched down a little, praying that they would be low enough to evade the Daleks' motion sensors, and started to run, one hand over her head and keeping close to the brick red wall. Behind her, easily matching her pace, was Rani, and Sarah Jane spared a moment – once again – to be grateful for her young companions. They never flinched from what she asked of them.

She gave cry, hastily suppressed, when the battle moved too close, a crowd of medieval warriors momentarily obsuring them from the Daleks and inadvertently acting as a human shield. She picked up her speed as the warriors began to fall before the Daleks' invincible rays, and flung herself through the (broken) gate into her back garden, Rani dropping beside her almost at once.

'That was close,' Rani whispered. 'Are we safe now?'

'No; the house should be safe enough,' Sarah Jane whispered back. 'I had Mr Smith erect a semi-permeable force-field that repels Dalek-style weapons several years ago, but the garden's fair game.'

'Surrender!' a high-pitched metallic voice insisted, unseen from their position but uncomfortably close, perhaps just on the other side of the wall. '_Surrender_ or you will be exterminated!'

They heard someone try to say something, and then there was a cry.

'Does "exterminate" mean what I think it does?' Rani whispered into Sarah Jane's ear.

'It means exactly what you think it does,' Sarah Jane responded grimly. 'Those poor people, there was no way they could have defended themselves against those – those _abominations_.'

'Where do you think everyone is?' Rani asked, panic threading her tone. 'I didn't have time to check my house, but it won't have Mr Smith's field and all I saw was those old fighters and the Daleks... d'you think everyone living here has been … _exterminated_?'

'Don't think about it,' Sarah Jane told her firmly. 'We need to focus on getting inside. The garden looks clear, and I think we'll be able to use the back door. I don't want to risk the front; the drive's too open.' Rani nodded, and Sarah Jane took a deep breath. 'Come on!'

They traced the line of the house to the last corner before turning into where the back door was, and Sarah Jane, who was in front, stopped dead, her hand going quickly to her mouth to choke her scream at birth.

'What is it?' Rani asked as Sarah Jane flung out an arm to keep her back. 'Why aren't we – _oh_...'

'_That's_ why I didn't want you to look,' Sarah Jane told her tonelessly.

She did not turn to look at the girl; her eyes were fixated on the unfortunates in front of her, grotesquely splayed across her garden path. One of the two was a medieval soldier, a boy who looked as if he was not much older than Sky. The other … the other was the old man who lived three doors down. Sarah Jane had exchanged perhaps ten words with him in all her years on Bannerman Road, but he'd been polite in the old days, the days of loneliness, before the Doctor and Deffrey Vale.

Both were dead, almost certainly victims of the Daleks.

And both were also being slowly consumed by the pair of pterosaurs who perched on the bodies, clearly enjoying their impromptu feast.

One of those long narrow heads twitched in their direction, an action that was oddly birdlike, and Sarah Jane pushed Rani back and down.

'They mustn't see us,' she hissed to the younger woman. 'Either they'll kill us themselves, or they'd raise such a racket that they'd draw attention to us.'

Rani slumped into Sarah Jane's bushes, her head against the red brick of the house. 'We're screwed. Either way, we're done for.'

'Hey, enough of that. I'll admit,' Sarah Jane went on with a deep breath, 'that this isn't good, but we've been in sticky situations before, and we've come through. We'll manage this time too, you'll see!'

Rani said nothing, and Sarah Jane swallowed, realised that her young apprentice was no longer a child, was indeed almost an adult, and easy words were nothing more than a waste of breath.

'Have faith, Rani,' she said in a rather different tone. 'We're not alone out here.'

'We might as well be, with the others stuck in the car and Luke who-knows-where,' Rani responded glumly, but Sarah Jane took heart from the fact that the girl's dark eyes were intent, signifying deep thought.

_Thinking_, she could cope with. In fact, thinking sounded like a very good idea about now.

She leaned against the wall in her own turn, forcing tense muscles to relax. They might have to run again at any moment, and she couldn't afford to be delayed by a cramp. Her eyes closed - only to pop open again in shock as something grabbed her shoulder from behind and above, and pulled.

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><p><strong>TBC<strong>


	8. Chapter 8

**Starting to go a little AU here. From this point on, I will no longer be following _The Wedding of River Song_ so closely.**

**Thanks to Vilinye and AvatarRikki for the continued support. AR: good call about the Daleks. This is what happens when you watch _Wedding of River Song_ AND _Genesis of the Daleks_ more or less simultaneously... And thanks also to Spydurwebb! Good to see you here!**

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><p><strong>Chapter Eight<strong>

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><p>'Boy - oh boy - oh <em>boy<em>,' Clyde muttered softly. 'This is not good. This is very definitely _not_ good.'

Beside him, crouched down under the blanket in the well between the car's front and back seats, Al whimpered in agreement. Sky was also under the blanket, arranged prone across the seat.

They were under siege, or so it felt. Daleks trundled past the car, sending vibrations up into the car itself. Medieval warriors screamed and fought and died only metres away, and Clyde was certain he'd just spotted some guy who looked identical to the images of Roman soldiers he remembered from his primary school days. Overhead, prehistoric bird-like creatures swooped and dived, sqawking their exhilaration at the battle going on below. He had to swallow a tide of revulsion when he realised that the dives were synchronised with the deaths of the human warriors.

_This is not the time to panic_, he told himself firmly. _You're the grown-up here, with these kids. Sarah Jane said that as long as we're in the car and those pepperpots don't notice us, we're safe..._

Even in his own mind, the reassurance rang hollow, and Clyde was glad he hadn't uttered it aloud. He could feel Al trembling next to him and Sky... Sky had opened her eyes just as he'd covered her with a blanket, but he'd hissed at her to be quiet and she'd obeyed instantly.

_She's a Smith_, he thought proudly.

He was trying not to worry about his mum and Sarah Jane and Rani and Luke. Trying not to let his artist's imagination run wild, showing him images of what could have befallen those he loved with hi-def clarity.

'How long do we have to stay here?' Al murmured, and Clyde felt that rush of pride again. Al was barely twelve, younger than Clyde himself had been when he hooked up with Sarah Jane Smith, and the boy had faced the day's events with admirable calm.

'Until Sarah Jane tells us we can move,' he responded. 'She knows what she's doing, Al. She'll get us out of this, I'm sure of it.' Now he was proud of himself and the certainty he'd managed to infuse into his voice.

'Why can't you phone her?' Al whispered, reminding Clyde that the younger boy wasn't present during their discussion of the non-functioning mobile phones.

'We can't,' he began patiently, pulling his own mobile out of his pocket, and attempting to turn it on in order to demonstrate. 'See, even then weird help message is gone. It's like the dodo, a goner, it's not – _whoa!_ Did you see that?'

Al leaned over. 'What? It looks dead, like you said.'

'Something flickered,' Clyde told him. 'Just for a second, if you'd blinked, you'd've missed it.'

There was a pause.

'I must've blinked,' Al said solemnly, ''cos I never saw a thing.'

'Wait...' Clyde breathed. 'Look! There it goes again!'

'I saw it!'

Al bent over to peer at the phone's screen, bumping Clyde's chin in the process and wringing a muted 'Oi, watchit, brat!' from him.

'I think it was a lady,' Al said dubiously after studying the screen for a time.

'That's what I thought too,' Clyde agreed uneasily. 'But... who is she? And how's she hacking into dead phones?'

'Does it happen on mine?' Sky asked, sounding more like herself than she had done throughout the whole experience.

'Yours is dead too,' Clyde confirmed. 'Dunno about the flashing lady though. Never mind that, how're you doin', my mini-padowan?' He reached out to give Sky's arm a 'welcome back to the land of the living' style-pat, only to recoil violently at once, defensively nursing his hand.

'What happened?' Al hissed.

Clyde sat thinking, a slow grin spreading across his face as he took in the implications of what had just happened. 'Oh, nothin' much,' he began nonchalantly. 'We've only just got our ticket out of here. Sparky's got her spark back!'

* * *

><p>Rani winced reflexively as Sarah Jane fell hard onto her utility room floor, and rushed over to help the older woman to her feet.<p>

'This is ridiculous,' Sarah Jane said peevishly. 'I'm getting my bus pass in a couple of months. _Why_ am I still climbing through insanely tiny windows?' She ended with a glare, and Rani had to smother a grin as she extended a hand.

''Cos you're Sarah Jane Smith and climbing through windows is what you do,' Luke said, reaching out his own hand. 'C'm'on, Mum, up you get. Things to do!'

Together, the two teenagers pulled Sarah Jane to her feet, and Rani watched as the faint annoyance vanished from Sarah Jane's face as she took in the sight of her son, safe, sound, and _here_.

'Thank goodness you're all right, Luke!' Sarah Jane looked as if she was restraining herself from giving her son one of her trademark hugs. 'And Jo and Santiago… how on earth did you past the Daleks?'

Luke folded his arms and grinned down at her, looking like a very earnest stork. 'I've told you before, you've got gifted kids. And gifted mates,' he continued, transferring his grin from his mother to Jo Jones and her grandson. 'We set K9 up to send out a signal; it worked like the sonic and disrupted their circuits just long enough to let us get past.'

'Neat,' Rani approved. 'Very neat. One-nil to Lukey-boy, I like it.'

Luke's eyes widened and he gave her a quizzical glance. 'Now I know you've been spending too much time with Clyde. You're even starting to _sound_ like him.'

Rani felt her cheeks warm, and was silently grateful when Sarah Jane distracted them all by holding up a hand, an inward look crossing her face.

'Quiet, everyone,' she ordered softly. 'I think I hear something… _ah_!' And she fled from the utility room, her companions at her heels.

Rani remembered why this was a bad idea when Sarah Jane stopped suddenly in her front hall, nearly causing a mass collision. After a momentary exchange of flurried 'sorries' and 'you OKs' she took off again, this time headed for the living room.

'It's just the radio,' Luke observed as they gathered around his mother where she stood frowning at her bookcase. 'What's so special about the radio?'

…_solar flares,_ the little radio said authoritatively from where it sat in between two relatively bland alien artefacts.

'It's working,' Rani breathed. 'This is the first time it's been working since Sky came, isn't it?'

Sarah Jane nodded, one finger raised in a warning to be quiet as she listened.

…_Crowds lined the Mall today as Holy Roman Emperor, Winston Churchill, returned to the Buckingham Senate..._

'Buckingham Senate?' Sarah Jane and Jo echoed incredulously, just as Rani and Luke exclaimed, 'Winston _Churchill_?'

Santiago simply stood and gawped. 'Now I _know_ we're not in Kansas anymore.'

Luke's expression was troubled. 'Yeah, I've a feeling 'Kansas' is a long way away this time. Several realities away, in fact.'

'Oh, Doctor,' Sarah Jane murmured. 'What have you got yourself into _now_?'

The front door blew open, and everyone wheeled around, Sarah Jane's hands automatically holding everyone back, behind her, in an attempt to protect them from whatever was coming.

Then Clyde's head popped round the door, and Rani's knees momentarily weakened. It was so … _amazing_ to see him, that cheesy grin in place.

'Hi, everyone.' He waggled his phone at them. The screen was flashing between dead and a disjointed video of a woman talking. 'I think we need Mr Smith.'

'Hi Mum.' Sky's head floated above Clyde's for a second. 'Go on,' they heard her continue as she vanished from sight. 'Don't just stand there, get in!'

Apparently, she added a not-so-gentle shove for emphasis, and Clyde stumbled rather inelegantly into Sarah Jane's front hall. Fortunately for his dignity, Luke and Rani were there to steady him, and the three friends beamed at each other, their arms intertwined.

Sarah Jane was hugging Sky, while Al was submitting to being patted and cooed over by Jo.

'Confession time, Clyde,' Sarah Jane began sternly. 'How did you get here, especially after you'd been told to stay _there_?'

Clyde grinned. 'Since when has that worked?' No,' he went on more seriously. 'I'd every intention of staying in the car, just like you said. Between killer pepperpots, dinosaurs, and living history, I was perfectly happy where I was. And then…. We got sparks!'

'Sparks… You mean Sky?' Sarah Jane pressed. She looked at her adopted daughter. 'Sky?'

For answer, the small girl held out her hands, closed her eyes, and took in a tiny breath. They could see the fierce concentration in her face. Her eyes popped open, and muted sparks literally shot from her fingertips. 'I got it back,' she said simply, raising her eyes to meet her adopted mother's. 'But _now_ I seem to be able to control it.'

'Dad'll be pleased to hear that,' Rani muttered as she remembered her father's bitter complaints about the electricity board on the morning of Sky's advent.

'So… you blasted – er, sparked – your way from Mum's car to here?' Luke asked his sister. 'How many Daleks did you blow up?'

Sky's face creased in a monkey grin. 'A lot! They just went… _boom_! And then all the people in the funny suits ran off screaming,' she ended cheerfully.

Rani glanced out of the window, trying to see through the gates to the street beyond. It took a couple of minutes of peering, but eventually she was able to tell the others that Sky seemed correct: there was less movement than there had been.

'It's still not safe,' Sarah Jane reminded them when Rani and Clyde both dived for the front door. 'I'm sorry, you two, but you're going to have to wait this out here. Luke and Sky may have cleared Bannerman Road between them, but there's still the sky – and who knows what you'd find as soon as you turned out of the street?'

'Mum's right,' Luke consoled. 'Besides, we've work to do here. Who's that woman on your phone, Clyde? What was the radio on about? Buckingham Senate? Winston Churchill?'

'Buckingham Senate's where the Emperor lives,' Al piped up. 'Don't you know that? Everybody knows that!'

Everyone else exchanged glances.

'No, Al,' Rani told him. 'I think you'll find that everyone doesn't know that. Not everyone _here_, at any rate.' Her eyes went to Sarah Jane's, silently demanding an explanation.

Sarah Jane was chewing her lip, seeming more worried by the second. 'Actually, Rani, if you think about it, you'll find we do know that.' Everyone stared. 'No, just – think about it. Don't worry about it, just… _think_.'

There was a silence as everyone obeyed. Finally, Santiago spoke.

'I see what you mean. I remember now… but I remember the other one, too. The one where Churchill's dead and it's Buckingham _Palace_ and Britain hasn't had an empire in forever… What's going on? Gran?' His voice went up at the end as he turned to his grandmother.

'It's fine, sweetheart,' Jo assured him. 'It's just time gone wrong. It happens.' She sounded almost as shaky as her grandson.

Rani turned to Sarah Jane. 'This doesn't make sense. Why do we all have these … dual memories, but Al doesn't?'

'Because we've all been through the vortex,' Luke answered for his mother. 'One way or another. Sky was brought here by the Fleshkind, and the rest of us have been in the TARDIS.'

Rani was disturbed to notice that Al, who'd been so comically emphatic about Sky's 'weirdness' earlier in the day, took this confirmation of it without turning a hair. It was further evidence of Luke's words.

At that point, Sky, Luke and Clyde all began to pat themselves with the characteristic motions of a person trying to find an insistent gadget. Sky got there first, pulling her phone out of the pocket of her school skirt.

'It's that woman again,' she said to Clyde.

'This one?' Luke asked, flipping his phone around so that everyone could see the screen. It showed a woman wearing a black eye patch. She was talking, but they couldn't hear what she was saying.

'That's her,' Clyde agreed. 'Anyone any good at lipreading?'

Santiago held out his hand for the mobile. 'I'll have a shot. Lipreading's a useful thing to know when you're demonstrating near police.' He frowned in concentration as he watched.

'Well?' Rani prompted when it seemed he'd had forever to study the thing. 'Any joy?'

Santiago's frown remained in place as he returned the phone to its owner. 'I think it's just one clip looping. Something about the Doctor dying, and please, _please_ help.'

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><p><strong>TBC<strong>

Apologies is this is a bit slow. Truth is, my SJA-love focuses around SJS/kid interaction, with lots of teasing and fluff and humour and 'aww'. So... that tends to creep in, possibly at the expense of the plot! However, more plot-focus coming up... And don't forget to tell me what you think! I'm loving this, and it's always lovely when people say they're enjoying it too, although concrit is very welcome also.


	9. Chapter 9

_Thanks to _**Vilinye, Sol3Bug, Avatar Rikki, Torchwood Cardiff, **_and_ **Mystic Lover of the fairtale **_for their reviews! This chapter is setup for the next, which I'm REALLY looking forward to writing... As always, enjoy and let me know what you think!_

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><p><strong>CHAPTER NINE<strong>

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><p>Sarah Jane's primrose living room was very quiet as Santiago finished speaking, but the words <em>the Doctor is dying<em> seemed to echo around the usually tranquil space, giving body to long unspoken fears.

Sarah Jane herself had turned very white, but almost at once she lifted her chin, her hands going automatically to her hips. 'Don't panic, everyone,' she said firmly. 'We've heard this before, remember? Besides, Santiago said dying – not dead. While there's life there's always, _always_ hope!'

'Just right!' Jo nodded, her bright hair moving in emphasis. 'Why, you wouldn't believe the things that man has experienced – and survived. A little thing like imminent death won't stop him, just you see!' All the same, her grip on Santiago's arm tightened.

'So what do we do?' Clyde asked, turning to Sarah Jane. There was no trace of the joker in him now. 'How do we help? There's gotta be _something_,' he added, ''cos otherwise Patchy there wouldn't be asking for it, would she?'

Sarah Jane was chewing her lip again, mulling over the events of the day in her mind. 'We need to find a way to contact our friend with the eyepatch. If she's able to hack otherwise dead phones, theoretically she should also be able to get through to Mr Smith – and he's got more power than _any_ Earth smartphone.'

'Up to the attic, then!' Clyde sounded like his customary cocky self, but his gaze was soft and concerned when it rested on Sarah Jane. 'You go on up,' he urged. 'Clani'll sort the teas, won't we?'

''Course we will,' Rani agreed readily.

'"Clani"?' Santiago queried.

Sky grinned up at him, her eyes sparkling. 'That's what Luke calls Clyde an' Rani. Clani!' She giggled.

Sarah Jane looked at her daughter. 'Do you want to help?'

Sky had recently taken up 'cooking lessons' with Clyde after the latter had declared that a diet of pizza was yum, but no good for growing girls, even sparky growing girls. To Sarah Jane's surprise – and, it must be confessed, chagrin - the child enjoyed the sessions very much, and took great pride in her ability to make perfectly brewed tea and uncharred toast.

Sky's face lit up. 'Can I? Al can help,' she added, ignoring how her friend's glum face turned even glummer at this statement.

Luke laughed and put his arm around his mother's shoulders. 'Looks like we're gonna have a contender for _Junior Masterchef_ on our hands,' he teased. 'Just as well; I live in fear of you poisoning yourselves.'

'Oi!' Sarah Jane protested, but only half-heartedly. She knew what they were trying to do, and appreciated it, but she could not shake the cold dread that was pooling ever more insistently at the pit of her stomach.

_The whole universe might just shiver…_

She shivered herself at the thought, trying to rub some warmth into her arms through the thin fabric of her pastel coloured shirt. 'Tea's a great idea,' she said at last when she realised that everyone was looking expectantly at her. 'Luke, I need you upstairs. Jo, Santiago?' She raised a questioning eyebrow at them.

'I'll help – Clani,' Santiago said with a smile. 'Gran'll go with you, I know she's dying to poke around in that glory-hole of an attic.'

'_Santiago!_' Jo reprimanded, turning faintly pink.

Sarah Jane relaxed and smiled, putting her arm around her fellow ex-companion and guiding her out of the room. 'Let's go then, and you can poke to your heart's content.' She allowed the other woman to precede her up the stairs; Luke had already gone ahead. When they finally entered the attic, it was to find Luke half-buried in Mr Smith's internals, various panels lying nearby.

'What are you doing?' Sarah Jane asked, coming to kneel by her son. She was experiencing a twinge of déjà-vu, remembering all the times she'd entered the TARDIS's control room to find the Doctor in Luke's very position. 'Wasn't he working?'

Luke's voice was hollow when he answered, echoing around the supercomputer's components. 'He was, but it was like the phones – flickering. I thought that if I could hook him up wirelessly to K9, that'd help boost the signal.'

She gave a wry smile. 'It's just as well Mr Smith isn't completely present,' she commented as she regained her feet and stood back. 'He wouldn't appreciate that at all!'

'It's time they got over that,' Luke said sternly, sounding much older than he was. 'There's a time and place for tech-rivalry, and this isn't it! Now let's see.' He slid out from inside Mr Smith, thumped the panels into place, and sat back on his haunches, his gaze fixed on the uncharacteristically dull screen.

They were not waiting long.

They heard her before they saw her, saying the words that Santiago had gleaned earlier: _the Doctor is dying, please, please help_ and Sarah Jane stiffened, grateful when she felt Luke's steady hand close over hers in silent support.

Mr Smith's screen began to flicker. It was odd watching him come to some sort of life without his usual pompous fanfare.

Then the woman they had momentarily glimpsed earlier was filling Mr Smith's screen. The sound was intermittent; it didn't seem to match the movements of her mouth.

Jo came to peer at the screen after pulling her glasses off her head and shoving them up her nose. 'Golly, she's got some hair, hasn't she? What's she saying?'

Luke returned to the panel he'd been working behind and thumped it three times.

Jo's eyes were very wide. 'Does that honestly work, Sarah Jane? Won't he break it?'

Sarah Jane shook her head. 'Not him; and if he did, he'd be able to put Mr Smith back together again, so –' She shrugged, a testimony to her confidence in Luke's abilities.

'…all the Doctor's friends,' the woman on Mr Smith's screen voice said, and they jumped and turned to look at her.

Sarah Jane stepped forward. 'Who are you? What do you want?'

The other woman leaned forward, her mass of curls taking up more of the screen than her face did. 'I'm River Song,' she began. 'And _you're_ Sarah Jane Smith.'

Sarah Jane folded her arms. 'How do you know my name?'

River smiled – a smile that was both indulgent and coquettish. 'Come, dear, how could I not know your name? The Doctor's best friend, and her amazing, _brilliant_ band of children, all saving the world from an attic in Ealing…'

'You still haven't answered Mum's question,' Luke pointed out from Sarah Jane's other side. 'Are you the Doctor's latest companion?'

'What a nice young man,' River remarked in an ambiguous tone. 'I do like your son, Sarah Jane, he's just as direct as you are, but there's a lot you can't be told, either of you. Spoilers, you know.' The smile flashed again.

'Now, look here,' Jo objected. 'You've hijacked our thingummyjigs, even when they were broken – awfully impressive, I must admit – and now you've managed to get through to us. You want something, your sort always do… so stop… stop _nattering_ and spit it out!'

River's face enlarged alarmingly as she leaned closer to look at Jo. Sarah Jane wondered if this was how the Lilliputians had felt when confronted with Gulliver.

'Why, it's Jo Grant!' River exclaimed. 'I hardly recognised you, dear, but I suppose I should have. The Doctor said he'd seen you, and that you looked… baked.' She beamed. 'Oh, that man. He does have a way with words, doesn't he?'

Sarah Jane gestured at Luke. 'Cut her off,' she ordered abruptly. 'Get back to me when you're ready to be serious, River Song.' She turned away from Mr Smith and waited… _one… two… three_.

'No-no, wait, I-' River began as Luke moved to obey, but fortunately for her, both Luke and Sarah Jane were distracted by the entrance of Rani, Clyde, Sky, Santiago, and Al, all burdened with various cups, pots, and comestibles.

'Who's that?' Clyde asked, dumping his pot and handful of cups down on the desk next to Sarah Jane's computer. 'Is she the one who's been messing with our gear?'

'That's what we're trying to find out,' Luke answered grimly, 'but she won't give us a straight answer to a straight question.'

'I like your hair, Mrs-Whoever-You-Are,' Sky said, coming to stand at Luke's side. 'I hope my hair is like that some day.'

River blinked, but she recovered instantly. 'All right,' she began quietly. 'Enough silliness. I'm… a friend of the Doctor's, and he's in trouble, the worst kind of trouble. I'm sending out a message to everyone, everyone he's ever helped, everyone he's ever called friend, to say: now it's time to pay your debt. The Doctor is dying; please, _please_ help.'

'What's happened?' Rani demanded. 'We've heard this dying-Doctor thing before, y'know. Fool us once and all that. How do we know you're telling the truth?'

There was a long pause, so long that Sarah Jane wondered if the connection between Mr Smith and River had somehow frozen.

Then River's gaze locked on Sarah Jane, and Sarah Jane's breath caught in a gasp. The other woman was telling the truth; it was there in her eyes, sadness and guilt and hope combined.

'I know he's dying,' River said slowly, allowing each word its full weight, 'because I'm the one who killed him.'

There was an odd sound as everyone expelled their breath at once, and then tried to regain the oxygen.

'You killed him,' Luke repeated. 'But how? Why didn't he regenerate? And if you killed him, why are you asking for help now?'

'Because I couldn't do it,' River answered hoarsely. 'His death is a fixed point in time; he said it couldn't be changed or altered, even though I know – and he knows, damn him – that time can be rewritten. He said it had to happen. But I couldn't do it. I couldn't kill the man I love.'

'The man you – you love?' echoed Jo, sounding utterly stunned. 'Love… as we all love him, or … _love_ love?'

For a split second, the teasing, coquettish River returned. 'Spoilers, darling.'

Almost at once, her haunted _alter ego_ was back. 'I stopped it. I changed time.'

'That's why everything's changed,' Sarah Jane realised. 'You interfered with a fixed point – and now all of history is collapsing.'

'I saved the Doctor,' River stated. Oddly, in that moment she sounded like a child, no older than Sky. 'For now. I've bought us some time. Time to work out how to stop it, how to prevent the Doctor from dying.'

Sarah Jane shook her head and took another step closer to Mr Smith. 'No, you haven't,' she insisted in a voice that trembled. 'You may have destroyed it. If – if it was the Doctor's time, if his death was fixed… you shouldn't have interfered.' And she repeated the words she had said to the Doctor, that day at Deffrey Vale: 'Everything has its time – and everything ends. Even him.'

The heavy silence that greeted Sarah Jane's little speech blanketed the attic, extending even to River. It was shattered abruptly by the sudden sound of thumping and banging.

'What's that?' Rani hissed, pulling Sky and Al towards her. 'It's not the Daleks back, is it?'

She was answered by an unknown voice ordering 'Open up! Open up in the name of the Emperor!'

'Stay very quiet and still, everyone,' Sarah Jane said. 'If we don't respond, perhaps they'll give up and leave.'

Even River nodded her head in acquiescence to this, and the group in the attic huddled together, noiseless apart from their breathing.

'Open up, Sarah Jane Smith!' the voice floated up, in through the open attic window. It was not the original voice. 'We know you're there. If you doesn't come, lady, you an' yours'll be spending the night in the Tower.'

Sarah Jane swallowed and climbed awkwardly to her feet. Her intention was clear, and her children threw themselves at her.

'You can't go with them,' Sky implored, clinging to her. 'Please, Sarah Jane. Please, Mum.' She started to cry quietly.

Sarah Jane tightened her arms around the little girl, and her eyes met Luke's.

He put his hand on her shoulder and squeezed. 'I know,' he said quietly, pulling his sister away from their mother. 'I'll take care of her.'

'I'll help,' Jo agreed as Sarah Jane passed her.

'I'm comin' down with you,' Clyde told her roughly.

Sarah Jane nodded and began her descent down the dark attic staircase. Clyde stuck to her heels all the way down, and gave her a nod of support when she went to the front door. The dark silhouettes of two men could be seen through the stained glass.

'Ready?' Clyde whispered.

'Always,' Sarah Jane answered, and opened the door.

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><p><strong>TBC<strong>


	10. Chapter 10

****_Apologies for taking so long with this chapter! This week has been a bit mad. Apologies too for not responding to reviews - see the aforesaid madness! Hope you enjoy..._

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><p><strong>CHAPTER TEN<strong>

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><p>Sarah Jane had encountered many strange, frightening, and wonderful things during her lifetime, but opening her front door to find a pair of absolutely genuine, <em>bona fide<em> Roman soldiers on her doorstep was a new experience, even for her. Their cloaks were of wool, once red but faded by time and the elements. She could see where the material had been skilfully darned. Their helmets gleamed, and beaten leather strips criss-crossed down their legs to their rough marching boots.

'Wicked,' Clyde muttered behind her. 'In any sense,' he added more dubiously.

Sarah Jane could not blame him for his caution. At first sight, the pair of centurions presented a comical prospect, a Latin Laurel-and-Hardy duo. One was tall, lean, and lugubrious. The other was short and fat with glittering eyes that roved everywhere, missing nothing. Only this was not their world, and the pair could not be dismissed as members of some historical re-enactment group…

'Sarah Jane Smith?' the fat one said. 'You're comin' with us.'

Clyde slipped out from behind Sarah Jane before she could stop him. 'No! Who do you think you are, coming and taking people away like this? The Nazis?'

Sarah Jane reached out and pulled her young friend back. 'It's all right, Clyde,' she whispered into his ear. 'I'm a journalist, remember? The … Emperor might have something useful to say.'

'Just be careful,' Clyde chided. 'No silly risks, promise?'

Sarah Jane promised, whilst mentally wondering when their positions had switched; usually it was she giving Clyde this very warning.

'If you hurt her –' Clyde said to the soldiers. 'I'll – I'll –'

'Hush, slave!' the fat soldier snapped. 'One more word of cheek from you, and you'll be joining your mistress!'

'Leave it, Clyde!' Sarah Jane called out in alarm when she saw Clyde step forward, his jaw tight and fists clenched. The boy was understandably on the verge of losing control, and she absolutely _did_ _not_ want him with her – or worse, taken away from them altogether.

'She will be safe,' the lean soldier said directly to Clyde. 'I'll verify it myself. The Emperor wants only to speak with her.'

'See? I'll be fine,' Sarah Jane assured him, after exchanging a glance with the lean soldier. It was odd; she felt comfortable with him at once. His eyes were steady and kind, the eyes of a man who knew how to wait. 'Go on; I'll see you soon. Find out what you can about –' She raised a hand to her head and made waving motions with her fingers, simulating River Song's wild mop.

Clyde said nothing; with his jaw still tight, he nodded stiffly and withdrew back into the safety of 13 Bannerman Road. The door shut behind him with a definite click, and Sarah Jane took a deep breath and stepped forward.

'I'm ready when you are, gentlemen.'

The lean soldier took her arm, his touch gentle and respectful. 'Then come this way, _domina_. We must not keep Caesar waiting.'

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><p>Sarah Jane's journalist soul relished the journey to Buckingham Senate, despite the circumstances. Her status was confirmed by the appearance of a litter instead of a tumbrel-cart, and she tried to relax as four burly men hoisted her on their shoulders and began to carry her with practiced ease through the streets of London.<p>

This _is the true meaning of multiculturalism_, Sarah Jane thought flippantly as she peeked out from behind the curtains that enclosed her. Small aircars nipped past, their speed causing the curtains to flutter wildly and her litter bearers to stumble and curse as they were caught in the draught. Pterodactyls and pterosaurs circled overhead, the sound of their clacking mingling strangely with the audio news feed being broadcast from every high point. People of all times and ages mingled in the streets, Romans rubbing shoulders with medieval peasants, Tudor noblemen, modern teenagers, and the odd humanoid alien.

The Mall was still packed with crowds from the earlier procession, and Sarah Jane watched them dispel in the classic manner of British royal-watchers, burdened by empty picnic carriers and seating paraphernalia, urged on their way by a motley police force that put the bobby to work alongside Celtic warriors and Roman soldiers. Not surprisingly, this was occasionally dangerous, and Sarah Jane bit her lip as she watched a Roman and Celt turn on each other, their altercation short but vicious and bloody – and the crowds continued to move, unbothered by what was apparently a common occurrence.

Finally, Sarah Jane's own particular cavalcade approached the familiar statue of Queen Victoria, circled it, and entered the palace-cum-senate's grounds. Sarah Jane's curiosity remained at its peak; in her own reality she'd only visited the Palace once before, some ten years previously when an old journalist friend had asked her to accompany him when he went to collect his 'gong'.

From what she could see, little had changed, apart from the banners of imperial purple that hung from the balconies and wafted from the flagpole. The Household Guard stood in their customary places; only now they wore Roman robes instead of their customary uniform and bearskins. It was surreal to see how the tourists still flocked, still captured images for their personal posterities with everything from pencil-and-paper to a smartphone-type device that Sarah Jane was certain would recreate the scene as an interactive hologram. She had something similar in one of her treasure boxes in the attic…

Then they were passing under the arch into the inner courtyard, and she withdrew behind her curtains once again, preparing herself for whatever was to happen next. Being lowered almost to ground level was disconcerting, causing her stomach to flip, and she was relieved when her lean friend pulled back her littler curtains and offered a hand to help her leave it.

'Marcus has gone to tell Caesar you're here,' he said when her eyes skittered away from him, seeking out his unpleasant companion. 'I'm to escort you to the Throne Room.'

She jumped at the chance to glean information from a friendly face. 'Do you know why the Emperor wants to see me?'

Something flickered in his eyes. 'I am only a soldier, _domina_.'

'But you _suspect_ something,' Sarah Jane pressed, her journalistic instincts coming to the fore. 'Come on, you can tell me.'

The soldier's eyes darted left to right before he leaned in so that he could whisper in her ear. 'The Emperor has a soothsayer. He is mad, they say, he raves night and day about how the end is nigh. None can get sense from him; he simply mutters about silence and a woman…'

The relief that flooded Sarah Jane at that point was so great that her knees literally buckled, and the soldier's hand reached out to steady her.

'Are you ill?' he asked, his tone concerned. His eyes scanned her … as a nurse or doctor would, she realised.

'I'm fine,' she murmured, wanting to pull away and race inside. The Doctor was there, she was sure of it. He wasn't dead…

_Not yet_, some irritating little voice at the back of her mind pointed out. _He's only not-dead because River played with time. _

The memory caused her chin to lift and her spine to stiffen. There was work to do. 'Shall we go?' she suggested, indicating the several steps that led up to a double door. 'Let's get this over with … and see if you're right about this soothsayer.'

The soldier's eyes held hers for a long moment before he removed his hand from her arm and turned, his red cloak swirling behind him. 'This way, _domina_.'

Sarah Jane paid no attention to her surroundings as they traversed corridors of marble and white and gold on their way to the Throne Room. She was entirely focused on getting to the Doctor. All the same, she could not repress a gasp when they entered the Throne Room; it was almost a parody of images she had seen from Roman ruins, a temple to power and excess, with a long table running down the centre of the room. The table was large, but even it was dwarfed by the sheer scale of the surroundings.

At the centre of the table sat a man alone, garbed in white robes and draped in the same imperial purple that hung outside. He was instantly recognisable, even without the bowler hat and cigar, his glum expression making her certain that Winston Churchill's 'black dog' had pursued him into this reality.

'It's still two minutes past five on the twenty second of April 2011,' he was muttering as they approached. 'Always the same, time never moves…. ' He glanced up and his gaze sharpened. 'Ah. Sarah Jane Smith, I presume.'

_This isn't just odd, this is beyond surreal_, Sarah Jane thought giddily as she heard the voice that had eulogised the Few and conceptualised the Iron Curtain pronounce her name.

'Yes… Caesar,' she affirmed after a quick glance her soldier friend. 'I'm Sarah Jane Smith.' She bit off the other questions and demands that wanted to come; sometimes, one had to wait.

The 'Emperor' studied her from the other side of the table. 'You're the only person he's named, what,' he boomed. 'Sarah Jane Smith. "My best friend", he calls you.' He peered at her, and his scanty eyebrows shot up and he continued, mostly to himself. 'But I don't think you're the woman he blames.'

'Who is "he"?' Sarah Jane demanded. She already knew the answer, but only fools rushed in, especially in alternative realities, and Sarah Jane Smith was no fool.

'I don't know his name,' Churchill said gruffly. Sarah Jane could almost see an imaginary cigar moving as he spoke. 'He calls himself Soothsayer.' He leaned forward, and his eyes were pleading. 'Go to him, Miss Smith. Find out what the devil's worrying him. His tales of doom and destruction disquiet even me… and the ruddy clocks have stopped, what. Fix it, Miss Smith. Fix him. Fix _time_.' He drew out the last word and pursed his lips on it, his eyes turning round with emphasis.

_That's a tall order_, Sarah Jane thought. Saving the world was one thing, but fixing time itself? That was something else. 'I'll try,' she said. There was never any point in making promises where the Doctor was concerned.

'Hmm. Rory will take you to him,' Churchill boomed, and he nodded at the patient centurion. 'Try very hard, Miss Smith. All our lives may depend on it.'

Sarah Jane nodded her understanding and turned back to Rory, who waiting for her.

'Ready, _domina_?' he murmured as they reached the door to the Throne Room.

She nodded again, followed him silently as he took her down into the bowels of the building. The deeper they went, the darker and more Spartan the rooms and corridors became. Finally, they stopped outside a single door that was lit only by a flickering gas lamp. The paint was peeling away, was nearly entirely gone, but once upon a time it had been blue … TARDIS blue.

'He's in there,' Rory said, nodding at the door. 'I'll wait here for you. Just call if you need me.' And he crouched down and turned motionless, a living statue.

Sarah Jane placed her hand gently on the door and listened. She could hear muttering, the same feverish, purposeful muttering she had heard so many times, and her heart clenched.

She straightened her shoulders and pushed, determined to save her best friend yet again.

* * *

><p><strong>TBC<strong>.

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><p><em>Next time: Do we stick with Sarah Jane or switch back to Bannerman Road? Your choice...<em>


	11. Chapter 11

_Here we are at last, Chapter 11! I'm so sorry I've taken so long. I was torn between whether to satisfy the SJ camp or the Bannerman Road camp, and played with the idea of splitting the chapter between the two. Then I got an iPad3 last week, and naturally had to play - AND the arthritis in my hands has returned. Thus, delay. On the up side, I've got the next few chapters plotted out again, so it shouldn't be as long before ch 12 makes an appearance. As always, read and enjoy, and thank you to ALL of you who've dropped a line. I'm horribly behind in replying to reviews, but I do appreciate each and every one. _

_And now, back to Bannerman Road. We'll return to Sarah Jane in the next chapter. Besides, given that Sky's the title character, I thought she needed a little more attention..._

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><p><strong>CHAPTER 11<strong>

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><p>Back at 13 Bannerman Road, Clyde leaned against Sarah Jane's inner porch door, closing it with his body. His head fell back on the blue and green glass, and his fists clenched as he tried to get his rage under control. Calling him a slave had been bang out of order, and Clyde knew he was fortunate Sarah Jane had put a stop to his instinctive reactions.<p>

He took a deep breath, and another. Now was not the time to indulge in a personal strop, however well justified it might be, and Sarah Jane had given him – given them all – a job to do. He pushed himself forward, away from the door, and crossed the hall to the stairs that would ultimately lead him to the attic.

When he emerged from the dark attic staircase into the welcoming red glow of the attic itself, all eyes immediately swung to him. Guilt assailed Clyde has Luke's shoulders infinitesimally slumped, and Rani's face became still.

'They took her away,' he said lamely at last, stating the obvious. 'I'd've stopped them if I could –'

'She _wanted_ to go,' Luke told him quietly, reassurance in his steady gaze.

Meanwhile, Sky's small face was growing darker and darker. 'That's not good enough,' she fumed, a halo of blue sparks surrounding her. 'You should've tried harder.' The look she gave Clyde reminded him of the way the others had looked at him during the Hetocumtek business.

It hurt just as much now as it had then.

'Who was it?' Rani asked. 'Was it the police?'

'It was soldiers, Roman soldiers.' He called up a smile that he directed at Sky. 'Your mum'll be fine, Sky. She can look after herself, and one of the Roman geezers seemed nice, he promised he'd keep an eye on her.'

'It'll all come out in the end, you'll see,' Jo told the little girl, ignoring the threatening sparks and pulling her close. 'It was just like this with the Doctor too. I'd think he was about to die, or get killed, or disappear and leave me locked up or something awful – but it always worked out in the very nick of time.'

'That sounds familiar,' Rani said drily, and the tension in the room lifted.

'Right then,' Clyde began, trying to sound chirpy. He rubbed his hands and approached Mr Smith. 'We need to get that River dame back. Sarah Jane said to,' he added.

'How does that get Mum back?' Sky demanded from the shelter of Jo's arms.

'I don't know, but if Mum said to find River, that's what we're going to do,' Luke responded, so firmly that Sky flashed him a dark look and subsided.

Rani's brow was crinkled in thought. 'Trouble is, we've lost the connection to River,' she said, jerking her head in the direction of the now-lifeless Mr Smith.

'When did that happen?' Clyde asked, surprised.

'Just after you and Mum left. Mr Smith fizzled and pop, she was gone,' Luke answered. 'I couldn't get him back.'

Clyde glanced at his phone, sitting blank and useless on top of the sawn-off pillar near the supercomputer. 'Maybe he needs an injection,' he said, half to himself and then whooped, throwing an arm around Luke's shoulders. 'That's it, Lukey-boy! Surprised you didn't think of it. Mr Smith needs an injection – of power.'

'How does that help?' Luke asked. 'We haven't got a power source now that K9's gone flat.'

A slow smile crossed Rani's face. 'Yeah, but we've got Sky, haven't we?' She crossed to where Sky still stood in Jo's embrace, and looked earnestly at the child. 'So what about it?'

Sky said nothing, her lips pinched shut, and Rani sighed. 'Look, I know you're worried about your mum, but this could be really, really important. We _need_ to get hold of River, and you're the only person who can help us do that.'

'Luke can do it,' Sky muttered. '_He's_ the genius, everyone says so.'

Luke's eyes opened widely at this, but he said, 'Not-so-genius right now, since I didn't even think of you.'

Sky did not answer.

'C'mon, Sky,' he pleaded. 'We're all different, yeah? I'm the genius, Clyde's the artist who keeps us all smiling, Rani's the sensible one' – whereat Rani screwed up her nose in disgust – 'and you're the sparky one, just as important as the rest of us.'

Sky disengaged herself from Jo's hold and sat down on the step, her arms folded and her chin held at a pugnacious angle. 'I still don't see how talking to that frizzy woman helps,' she said stubbornly. 'I don't care about the Doctor which is what _you're_ all worried about, I just want Mum back.' She hugged her knees to her chest and glared up at them.

The teenagers looked at each other helplessly. With the technology blackout they had no way to reach River, no way to let her know what had happened to Sarah Jane, no way to restore the universe. Sky was their only hope, and she didn't seem to be budging.

Assistance came from an unexpected source.

Al, who had remained quietly in the shadows, curled up on one of the sofas, came forward to join Sky on the step. He mirrored her position with his own.

'Could you do that?' he asked hesitantly. 'Just – just spark that computer into life?' He sounded incredulous, his eyes large and round, echoing his tone.

The rest of Team Sarah Jane hardly dared to breathe.

'Yeah,' Sky admitted eventually, turning her head from where it rested on her arms. 'I could.' The words were almost whispered.

'Cool!' Al expelled the word slowly. 'That's – that's – _how_?'

Sky turned her head away again. 'You might not want to be friends anymore,' she murmured, sounding resigned. 'I'm sort of – an alien.'

The attic was so still that one could have heard even the smallest of pins drop.

Al actually pinched himself, hard, and jumped when it inevitably hurt. His action jerked Sky out of her near-trance.

'What did you do that for?' she asked in something resembling her usual tone.

'Wanted to check I wasn't dreaming,' Al answered ruefully, rubbing the sensitive skin on the inner part of his lower arm. 'I'm not.'

Sky rolled her eyes. 'And you call _me_ weird.'

'_I'm_ not the alien,' Al fired back.

They grinned at each other, echoing a similar exchange many hours and a universe ago in their form room at Park Vale.

Al nudged her. 'Can't you do it?' he asked. 'What they want? It'd be – it'd be all kinds of cool'n'awesome.'

Sky looked as if she couldn't believe her ears. 'You don't mind about me being alien?'

Al shrugged. 'Not until you start eating everyone. 'Sides, I said you were weird, didn't I?'

Sky's face lit up. 'Yeah, you did.' She lifted her head to look at her friends and brother, who were standing anxiously awaiting her response to their request.

'OK,' she said, climbing to her feet, 'what do I need to do?'

* * *

><p>It took three attempts before they managed to establish a workable connection with River, and by that time Sky was trembling from exertion.<p>

Jo was the first to notice it.

'Come along, Santiago,' she told her grandson. 'That child needs some sustenance soon, or she's not going to be able to do her job. We're going to cook.'

'But –' Santiago protested, his eyes lingering longingly on River. He wanted to know what she was going to say.

His grandmother's eyes narrowed. '_Now_, sonny-boy, or I'll tell your friends about the time –'

Santiago turned pink. 'OK, OK, you win,' he grumbled. 'I'll come.' He glanced at Sky and a line appeared between her brows. 'I see what you mean,' he said to Jo in an undertone. 'Kid looks like she's gonna keel over in a mo.'

'Hmmm. Why don't you sit down, sweetheart?' she suggested to Sky. 'You can – er – do whatever you're doing from the steps, can't you?'

Sky wavered and blinked up at her, causing the image of River to flicker on Mr Smith's screen.

'Jo's right,' River herself said. 'Doing this requires enormous energy, and Sky's only a child. Whatever happens, someone – or several someones – will need to stay with her to monitor her condition.'

Rani pivoted away from Sky. 'What do you mean?'

The older woman gave her a pitying smile. 'My dear, do you really imagine we can resolve this while you're in Ealing and I'm … here?'

'I suppose not,' Rani agreed reluctantly.

'Who do you want?' Clyde demanded, just as Sky cried, 'I'm not staying here by myself!'

Luke sent River a glare before he turned to his small sister. 'You won't be, she said some of us will have to stay with you,' he soothed.

'But Mum's out there and I want to help get her back,' Sky pleaded, her eyes filling with tears. 'Please don't make me stay here.'

River's image flickered again. Rani nudged Clyde.

'C'mon, let's take the Joneses to the kitchen and show them where everything is,' she murmured. 'I think this is something Luke needs to do alone.'

Clyde nodded in understanding, and the pair ushered Jo and Santiago out of the attic, leaving only the two Smiths.

River's face was still blinking in and out, and Luke turned on her with some irritation. 'Look, leave us alone for a bit, can't you?' he snapped. 'We'll get back to you as soon as we can.'

River gave him another of those slightly condescending smiles and winked out. Luke heaved a sigh of relief and hunkered down beside Sky, who was once again on the steps. She was very white, he noted, almost as white as she'd been earlier in the day at the school. She was still a child, still a little girl: would she be physically capable of channelling the energy they would need?

'You know, you could be the turning point in all this,' he remarked.

Sky refused to meet his eyes.

Luke spared a moment to wish that Clyde or Rani had stayed with him. They knew Sky better that he did, adopted sibling or no, and he was belatedly coming to realise that Sky's feelings for him were … ambiguous, to say the least.

He sat down beside her on the steps, his long legs straight out in front of him. 'Did Mum ever tell you about my first Christmas here?'

There was no response; then, 'What's Christmas?' Sky asked in a very small voice.

Luke experienced a sudden flash of sympathy for his mother and their friends. Was this what they'd been through, with him?

'Christmas is a special time for some humans, especially in Britain,' he began. 'People exchange presents and eat and drink a lot.'

A line appeared between Sky's brows. 'Like a birthday,' she suggested.

'Yeah, only it's for everyone who wants to take part. Actually,' Luke continued thoughtfully, 'for some people Christmas is kind of a birthday: they believe it's the day that their god was born on Earth. And just like other birthdays, it's a family time.' He stopped and grimaced. 'It wasn't, that year. My first Christmas had me spending the day alone with Mr Smith.'

Sky's eyes widened. 'Why? Where was Mum?'

'Out saving the universe, and she wouldn't let me come with her,' he told her softly. 'I had to stay here and wait, and it was … horrible. But you know what? I'm glad I did.'

'What happened?'

'All the planets were pulled out of their proper places,' Luke remembered. 'Time was messed up, just like it is now. The Doctor managed to fix most of it, but there was one planet he couldn't fix – one stubborn little planet that just wouldn't go where it was supposed to. Want to guess?'

A smile flickered across Sky's face. 'Earth.'

Luke grinned at her. 'Yeah, Earth. D'you know how we put it back?'

'How?' Sky asked breathlessly, and something tightly coiled inside Luke relaxed: his hook had worked, Sky was engaging with him.

'Mr Smith, K9 and I were able to create a connection to the TARDIS, and between us … between us, we pulled the Earth back to its proper place in space and time.'

'Wow,' Sky murmured. Her face brightened. 'It was just as well you stayed behind, wasn't it?'

'Exactly,' Luke confirmed. He let a beat pass, then another. 'So?' He held his breath, knowing that his sister was bright enough to read between the lines.

Sky's chin came up and her eyes flashed. 'Then I'm staying behind,' she said firmly. 'Anything you can do, _I_ can do.'

Luke grabbed her and hugged her, hard. The others entered, bringing with them enough food for a party.

'Well?' Rani asked Luke as Jo and Al plied Sky with food and drink. 'Did it work?'

He smiled at her. 'It worked. Thanks for the hint about sibling rivalry.' He took several deep gulps from his mug and placed it on the nearest flat surface. 'Once we've eaten, we're ready to go.'

'Doing what we do best,' Clyde agreed, copying Luke's actions with his own cup, but his sombre eyes did not match his jaunty tone. Their intentions were almost impossibly ambitious, even for Team Sarah Jane.

Rescue Sarah Jane (if she needed it), save the Doctor, and fix the universe.

* * *

><p><strong>TBC, naturally. :)<strong>


	12. Chapter 12

I meant to get this out yesterday for the first anniversary of Lis's death, but I, um, failed to compute the date. Possibly because I didn't find out until the 20th last year - 2am, precisely - and so my inner clock is out of whack. As always, many thanks for all your comments and support, and long live Sarah Jane...

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter Twelve<strong>

* * *

><p>The muttering increased in volume as Sarah Jane cautiously opened the blue door and peered into the room beyond. She froze as the jumble of words suddenly coalesced into sense.<p>

'That's what you want, isn't it?' her best friend shouted, his eyes wild. 'That's the whole reason you exist. And it's the best way to fix time,' he muttered. 'TAKE _ME_!' he bellowed. 'Kill me now, and get it over with!'

'_No_!' Sarah Jane expostulated as she flung herself across the room to him. 'Doctor, no!' All her fine words to River about _a time for everything_ evaporated; the most important thing was keeping the Doctor _alive_.

The Doctor's eyes flickered in her direction, and when he flinched away from her, Sarah Jane felt as though she'd been punched in the stomach.

'Doctor,' she whispered pleadingly, 'Doctor, it's me.'

'This is another of your tricks, isn't it,' the Doctor demanded, the words falling over themselves in a delirious rush. 'Mind games. Well, I've had enough. Why won't you end it?' Again, his glare shot daggers into something unseen, and Sarah Jane felt a chill of fear prickle down her neck.

Carefully, she lowered herself next to him on the floor, maintaining a measurable distance between them. Equally carefully, she no longer sought eye contact.

'Is there someone – or some_thing_ – else here?' she asked softly. 'Something I can't see?'

'There's always something you can't see, Sarah,' he said, sounding so unnervingly like his fourth self that she glanced up at him in surprise, but he wasn't looking at her.

She wondered if he really knew she was there; whether the use of her name was nothing more than a subconscious reflex.

That doubt was dispelled when a long, skinny arm shot into her field of vision, and a gasp escaped her lips at sight of the black marks scored all over it. A tally marked again and again.

Tentatively, she reached out a finger and traced those marks: four down strokes, one long diagonal one… 'What is this, Doctor?'

'A reminder,' he replied hoarsely. He snatched his arm back.

She kept her head turned down, but glanced towards him. 'A reminder of what?'

'Shhh!' the Doctor hissed, putting a finger on her lips. 'They'll hear you!'

That chill-prickle became a full-on shudder, and Sarah Jane resisted the temptation to move closer to him, to close the gap between them.

'Who?' she mouthed at him, daring to look at him properly.

'The Silence,' he mouthed back, meeting her eyes for the first time. 'They're everywhere… just watching. And waiting.'

'For what?' she whispered.

The Doctor gave her a sad smile, a smile that was too old for his young face. 'For me to die.'

'They'll have a long wait,' she retorted, a smile glimmering at the corners of her mouth.

He did not return it. 'They're determined. That's why they exist, to kill me.' The pain in his voice was so great that Sarah Jane's eyes filled with tears in response. 'Just think, Sarah. An entire religious order dedicated to killing me. Because I've become too _dangerous_.'

'How?' Sarah Jane demanded, indignation making her sit bolt upright, away from the support of the wall behind them. Fleetingly, she noticed multiple instances of the tally drawn there, inscribed with something darkly red and chalky, and she bit down on her lower lip. When the blood came, it seemed oddly appropriate.

His answer to her question made very little sense. It was a ramble about plains and falls and Elevens and questions that must never be answered, and her mind latched onto the one phrase she understood: the recurring mention of _fixed_ _points_.

'Are you saying your death is a fixed point in time?'

'Apparently so.' He was no longer looking at her; he was back to staring into nothing...

'Are they still here?' she whispered.

The Doctor blinked. 'Who?'

Sarah Jane opened her mouth to reply, but the words vanished unspoken from the tip of her tongue, leaving a residue of uneasy frustruation.

She gave a nervous laugh. 'I can't remember. Ignore me, Doctor. I'm getting old.'

His gaze switched back to her and sharpened. 'No, it's not that. I've forgotten too, something important.' He frowned and looked down at himself, at his decorated arms. 'There's something I'm missing,' he murmured. He put a hand through the shaggy mop of hair that fell over his forehead, and looked unhappily at Sarah Jane. 'Why can't I remember?'

She could only shake her head and settle down beside him, the oppressiveness of this little room and its distracted occupant wearing her down. She shivered, even though the room was not cold - to the contrary, it was dry and bright, and modestly furnished.

Sarah Jane's brow wrinkled. 'Doctor, why are you being held here?'

He wasn't looking at her; his attention was focused on the palm of his hand.

'Doctor?' she repeated.

'It was the Silence,' he muttered without looking up. 'That's it, they want me dead, and they even trained their very own psychopath to do the deed...and she failed them.' He snorted. 'Typical.'

'_River_ was trained by the Silence to kill you?' Sarah Jane asked, aghast. 'But she said she loved you!'

The Doctor's eyes turned thoughtful. 'I think it's more complex than that. River... she's not entirely human, you see.'

Now it was Sarah Jane's turn to snort. 'Good match for you, then.'

'Yes. It was designed that way. Clever, wasn't it? Quite brilliant, in fact. Give me a woman whom I find irresistible, a woman who combines human oddities with just enough Time Lord DNA to make us truly compatible... and turn her into my deadliest enemy. The woman who kills the Doctor.'

'But she didn't,' Sarah Jane pointed out, confused. 'You're still here, alive.'

'That was a mistake,' he responded, his eyes hard. '_That_ is why we're here now, _that_ is why time has stopped! All because River, typical bloody River, didn't do as she was told!'

'You sound as if you're _sorry_ she didn't kill you,' Sarah Jane commented tartly. 'Why do you need to die, anyway? Are fixed points in time really so immutable? I'm sure I've seen you play fast and loose with a few!'

'That was different,' he said indignantly and she rolled her eyes. 'No, really, it was. I was a maverick - still am - but there's some lines even I avoid crossing unless there's a good strong safety net - and back then, there _was_.'

'Gallifrey,' Sarah Jane said.

'I knew they'd fix it if I really messed up,' he said, affirming her interjection. His old grin flashed, the one that she still found strange, without all the teeth. 'But now... there's only me. The Silence managed to engineer events so that my death would occur at a time and place that would fix it indelibly into the time-space matrix. When River interfered, she tore the very fabric of time itself... and now all of history, everywhere and everywhen, is collapsing. It's only a matter of time before everything is lost.'

Sarah Jane was chewing her lip again, despair sinking slowly into her. When the Doctor put the situation so very plainly, so very bluntly, it was difficult if not impossible to hold onto her hope that perhaps, perhaps, his death could be averted.

'If you die, will everything return to where and when it was?'

'Yep. We're in a vacuum right now. All it will take restart things is for River and I to touch... and we'll find ourselves back on the shores of Lake Silencio.'

'And she'll be killing you,' Sarah Jane finished for him, proud that she'd managed to force the unpalatable words past the ache in her throat.

'It's the only way,' he asserted. 'There's no way out this time, Sarah Jane. It's my time. Isn't that what you told me, that day in Deffrey Vale? Everything ends.'

'I never thought it would apply to _you_,' she said. Her voice broke, and she turned her face away from him, not wanting him to see her tears.

He put a lanky arm around her shoulders and pulled her close. 'Don't cry, Sarah. You know I hate to see you cry. Please.'

A large, old-fashioned handkerchief that recalled Sarah Jane's first Doctor was thrust under her nose.

'Wipe up,' the Doctor ordered, trying and failing to sound brisk.

Sarah Jane accepted the hanky and wiped her eyes. As she regained control, her mind started ticking over, revolving ideas ranging from the ridiculous to the impossible in less time than it takes to tell. She'd had experience, after all. When she returned the damp piece of white linen to its owner, she was calm once more, and the Doctor had returned to his slumped position against the wall.

She examined him through her lashes, and relief surged through her. He looked … grim, resigned, and perhaps there was just a trace of petulance? That thought made her smile.

'You don't want to die, do you,' she stated flatly. 'No matter what you _say_. Well then, we'll just have to think of a way out of it!'

'What d'you think I've been doing, sitting here?' the Doctor demanded, the trace of petulance becoming tangible. 'Twiddling my thumbs? There _is_ no other way, Sarah Jane!'

She permitted herself a wry smile. 'You only use my full name when I've made a point you're reluctant to admit has merit,' she told him. 'Come on, Doctor. _Think_. A Doctor needs to die at Lake Silencio at 5.02 on the 22nd of April, but does it need to be _you_?'

He raised an eyebrow in response. 'What, get one of my past or future selves to die in my stead? That's not very helpful.'

'And it wouldn't solve the real problem, would it,' Sarah Jane agreed with a sigh, her enthusiasm ebbing. 'You'd still be dead - "really most sincerely dead", as Sky as taken to saying ever since she watched _The_ _Wizard of Oz_.'

He peered at her curiously. 'Who's Sky? Have you been taking in _more_ waifs and strays?'

She shrugged. 'I learned from the best. Never mind Sky, you'll meet her soon enough _if_ we can get out of this.' She chewed on a thumb nail, an old habit that she deplored but which always popped up in moments of stress.

The Doctor's head fell back against the wall, his hair flopping forward over his forehead. It was a ridiculously boyish look, but Sarah Jane thought it did not suit this incarnation as well as it had done his predecessor…

'You asked if it needed to be me at Lake Silencio,' the Doctor said, interrupting her admittedly maudlin thoughts. 'And maybe it doesn't. If - _Eureka_, I've got it!'

His face lit up from within, chasing away the grimness that all too often inhabited those raw features in repose. 'Sarah Jane Smith, you're a genius! The Teselecta! Yes!' He jumped to his feet and punched the air, before beginning to march up and down his 'cell', muttering all the while.

Sarah Jane watched him, satisfied. This was familiar muttering, vigorous and purposeful; it signified that the Doctor had a plan, and she had no doubt he would find a way to carry it out.

Her confidence was validated when he said, 'Rory!' and turned sharply on his heel, marching towards the door. He grinned at Sarah Jane. 'Tardis blue an' all, yeah? Yeah.' He began to bang the door. 'Oi, Roman Boy, open up. I want a word with you.'

'You can't talk to a member of the Emperor's guard like that!' Sarah Jane remonstrated, albeit with some amusement. 'Bees and honey, Doctor - and a foot in the door when that fails.'

The Doctor's grin turned wicked. 'Don't you worry, Sarah. This isn't any old Roman, y'know. This is _Rory_, the Last Centurion. He doesn't know it, but he's married to one Amelia Pond. Once he remembers _her_, he'll move heaven and earth to get to her. He always does.'

At that point Rory's head popped in through the door. 'Are you well, Dom- oh.'

'Yes, "oh",' the Doctor agreed cheerfully. He yanked the door away from Rory's grip, and steadied him as he flew into the room. 'Steady on. No need to brain yourself.'

Rory looked helplessly towards Sarah Jane. 'Domina?'

'My name is Sarah Jane,' the owner of the name told him firmly as she rose to her feet. 'For goodness sake, use it. And sit down. The Doctor has a plan.'

'"Doctor"?' Rory repeated warily. He did not sit down; in fact, he was edging back towards the door, as if hoping he could make a run for it.

Sarah Jane went to him and smiled up at him, hoping she could re-establish their earlier bond. 'Rory, we need your help. You heard Wins - the Emperor. He wants to fix time, and the Doctor's the only one who can do it - one way or another.'

Rory's gaze switched from Sarah Jane to the Doctor and back. His hands clenched and relaxed and clenched again: a sign of nerves, Sarah Jane thought, her heart sinking.

And the Doctor wasn't helping. He was muttering again, and with his wild hair and unkempt clothes, Sarah Jane found that she could not blame Rory for his hesitation.

Then the Roman soldier lifted his head and squared his shoulders. His gaze was calm and steady, belying the nervous twitch at one side of his mouth. 'What do you need me to do?'

* * *

><p>TBC<p> 


End file.
